Will Home Schooling Become Illegal?

What do ya think of THIS CRAP..that judge needs HANGING.



FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL

Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and

The Liberty Alliance http://www.falwell.com



From: Jonathan Falwell

Date: March 7, 2008



Will Home Schooling Become Illegal?



The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that “shock waves” have been sent throughout the state’s home-schooling community after the California Court of Appeals issued a ruling which found no legal right of parents to home school their children.



“Parents who fail to [comply with state school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey, whose opinion was joined by the other two members of an appellate panel. The opinion, which was issued February 28, reversed a superior court judge’s ruling that “parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home.”



In this case, the parents of a student had enrolled her in Sunland Christian School, a private home schooling program. In his opinion, Judge Croskey called this action a “ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent.”



Brad Dacus, president of the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), said it should be noted that this Christian school “has been in full compliance with the requirements of the law for more than 20 years.” PJI, which is a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom and parental rights, is representing the family in this case.



The ruling, combined with Judge Croskey’s cautionary warnings, has had a chilling effect on home-schooling parents throughout the nation. Through the years, these families have seen examples of far-reaching efforts that attempt to quell the rights of parents to choose the way in which their children are educated.



“The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking,” said Dacus. “It not only attacks traditional home schooling, but also calls into question home schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools.”



He said if the ruling is not reversed, parents of the 166,000-plus students in home school programs in the state “will be subject to criminal sanctions.”



That’s a dire warning. And while this is troubling news for California’s home-schooling parents, Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) says there’s not yet a need for panic.



The HSLDA, noting that the appeals court ruling finds that “almost all forms of home-schooling in California are in violation of state law,” will file an amicus brief on behalf of its 13,500 member families in the state. The organization says that “a proper interpretation of California statutes makes it clear that parents may legally teach their own children under the private-school exemption.”



Parental Rights



I believe that parents should have the right to choose alternative education for their children. Specifically, Christian parents should have the right to choose faith-based schools or home schooling for their children, especially when one considers the accelerating focus on sex-ed in many public schools.



Just this week, we learned that a high school in Deerfield, Ill., had assigned the book, “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” — which includes vile language and graphic depictions of sexuality, including homosexuality — as a required student reading project. (After several parents complained the book was changed to an “optional title.”)



“It’s disgraceful for [education officials at the school] who have been entrusted to help mold the minds of Deerfield’s impressionable youth, to have abused those youth by ostensibly violating the very laws intended to protect them, said Matt Barber, Concerned Women for America’s policy director for cultural issues.



It’s no wonder that Christian parents are becoming more and more concerned about what their children are being taught in public schools.



While the teachers unions want control of all kids, we must work to ensure that parents retain the right to determine their children’s educations. I see this as a fundamental right for all parents and an absolute right of religious freedom for Christian families.

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