Just this week the Second District Court of Appeals in California issued a ruling in a child welfare dispute that will make homeschooling a criminal act for the majority of California homeschooling parents. Justice H. Walter Croskey presided over the 3-0 ruling and stated that “California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children.” The ruling determined that only those parents who are credentialed teachers may teach their children at home. Parents who do not hold teaching credentials and who homeschool their children can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply with the law.
The only functions of government should be to provide justice and protection of our way of life. These are the foundations our country was founded on. It was not founded on welfare programs or education or jobs. The government’s job is not to educate your kids, provide you with work or a monthly check if you’re out of work, or give you free healthcare. Yet these are the things that our government does more and more and more of.
This ruling in California is yet another example of liberalism run amuck. Liberalism is about controlling citizens. The concept of the individual doesn’t exist in the realm of liberalism–every person must be controlled by the government for the greater good of society. Liberals believe that the government is better at raising kids than parents are. Government knows best—what to feed your kids, how to dress your kids, what to teach your kids, and how to discipline your kids. Slowly our rights as individuals and as families are decaying in this country, and there is no better place to watch it happen than in California. It seems California is leading the charge to have everyone turn all their rights over to the government.
Multiple studies have shown that homeschoolers score an average of 15 to 30 percentile points higher on achievement tests than do government schooled kids. Homeschool parents also on average are more educated than the general public—88% continued their education beyond high school versus 50% for the general population. Nearly every year the winner of the National Spelling Bee is a homeschooler. By every measurable standard, homeschoolers are better educated than government educated kids.
No matter what the situation, even if you hold an M.D, a J.D., or a Ph.D, if you don’t hold a teaching certificate in California you can go to jail for homeschooling your kids. It doesn’t matter if you are the greatest teacher in the country, if you haven’t gone to school and taken the exams to get that little sheet of paper called a teaching certificate, you go to jail. It doesn’t matter if you live in Compton and your daughter fears she will be sexually assaulted every time she goes to school, the government doesn’t care because they think they will do a better job teaching your kid than you will.
I’m not quite sure if this is just a huge power grab from the California government to get more money into an already failing school system or if they’re just trying to implement socialism as soon as possible into this country. Either way, it’s a chilling ruling and it will hopefully be reversed for the sake of the kids whose education will most definitely suffer.
San Francisco Chronicle: Homeschoolers’ setback sends shock waves through state
Filed under: Around the World, Education | Tagged: California, Education, Election 2008, government, homeschool, Liberal, National Spelling Bee, socialism |
Conservemus 
This situation is totally SHOCKING! I can’t imagine being willing to live in California if this isn’t overturned. I know the Lord told us we would be persecuted, but I don’t think He would mean for us to go hunting for it. Do you know if some of the large evangelical pastors/churches in California have any thought of standing up against this?
I don’t know that this was necessarily a ruling targeted at any specific religious affiliation, but it does affect Christians more than other groups. There are many Christian families that prefer to raise their kids with a Biblical emphasized education, but cannot afford or may not have access to a private Christian school. Homeschooling is obviously the next best option for these families, and they should be able to exercise that right.
The ruling was just made this week, so I’m not sure what kind of response will me made by the churches in California. I would think that there will be a large public outcry about this, but remember that this is California we’re talking about here. The state as a whole has tolerated all sorts of laws limiting freedom in the past, so history does not bode well for the homeschoolers.
Absolutely chilling, and something to keep an eye on, for sure. I guess if it’s not overturned somehow, California homeschoolers will just have to hope their child services and legal systems are too busy to bother with them in actuality.
Home schooling is illegal in California. Most home schoolers are Christians and all they know to do is fearmonger. Just look at this as an example!
http://www.cftie.org/2007/12/sb-777-will-per.html
Socialism is death.
i am gonna show this to my friend, guy