Posted on 03/01/2008 3:54:09 AM PST by Man50D
A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled in a public school or "legally qualified" private school, and must attend, sending ripples of shock into the nation's homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal.
The ruling came in a case brought against Jonathan and Mary Long over the education being provided to two of their eight children. They are considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court, because they have homeschooled all of their children, the oldest now 29, because of various anti-Christian influences in California's public schools.
The decision from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles granted a special petition brought by lawyers appointed to represent the two youngest children after the family's homeschooling was brought to the attention of child advocates.
"We find no reason to strike down the Legislature's evaluation of what constitutes an adequate education scheme sufficient to promote the 'general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence,'" the court said in the case. "We agree … 'the educational program of the State of California was designed to promote the general welfare of all the people and was not designed to accommodate the personal ideas of any individual in the field of education.'"
The words echo the ideas of officials from Germany, where homeschooling has been outlawed since 1938 under a law adopted when Adolf Hitler decided he wanted the state, and no one else, to control the minds of the nation's youth.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has said "school teaches not only knowledge but also social conduct, encourages dialogue among people of different beliefs and cultures, and helps students to become responsible citizens."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
California exodus turns to stampede
Go figure.
I am wondering if it would be cheaper for this family to move out of the state instead of “fighting the power.”
I’m not surprised. The NEA is extremely threatened by homeschooling.
There will never be justice as long as judges spout lies such as this as part of their rulings. The program is NOT designed to promote the welfare of ALL people...it promotes the agenda of the Left.
Resistance is futile.
You will be assimilated.
The judges ruled in the case involving the Longs the family failed to demonstrate "that mother has a teaching credential such that the children can be said to be receiving an education from a credentialed tutor," and that their involvement and supervision by Sunland Christian School's independent study programs was of no value.
Nor did the family's religious beliefs matter to the court.
Their "sincerely held religious beliefs" are "not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California's compulsory public school education law to them violates their First Amendment rights."
Their First Amendment rights mean nothing in the school if they were to express their unPC viewpoints, if they put something up on MySpace about the school on their own non-school time on a non-school computer.
This is a very alarming display of a power grab by an agenda driven judiciary who's way overstepped THEIR Constitutional role.
Outright tyranny, pure and simple.
Sad to say NY is looking better and better.
Not because it’s getting better, but because everyone is coming down to our level.
And Schumer is actually appearing to have flashes of sanity- now and then, maybe, sometimes.
This is the worst story about anti-homeschooers that I have seen and I am not a 100 percent proponent of homeschooling. There was no reason given except for nonsense about credidation. No grades on tests or classes were given. Are the kids idiots? Stupid? What is the 29 year old doing? That should give some indication on how they homeschooled. I am all about results. The kids who are homeschooled who are stupid should not be homeschooled because it obviously does not work for them. For kids, who are able to get the grades and do well on the state exams should be able to continue...simple as that.
BS. It was designed to place the general welfare into State welfare - DUMB and DUMBER.
(I could find a dozen lesson plans accommodating to child's ideas as being correct, no matter what the answer is)
That would be funny if it weren’t so true and so sad.
Actually, it's not. Upstate's looking like a ghost town. We're bleeding people and jobs, too :(
Note to the nation: If you still wanna vote for 'Rats and/or RINOs, you can't say you weren't warned...
I plan to leave the minute my daughter graduates high school in 2009.
Credentials mean nothing. Both my best friend and s-i-l have teaching degrees. They both told me that there was nothing about the degree that they felt made them better qualified to teach, or that taught them to teach.
I’m easily as smart as any public school teacher. I have a 4 year degree in meteorology-which is heavy in math and science. I know that those science courses are more rigorous that the ones required for a teaching degree.
I know where I’m weak and when and where to go for supplementation.
There is no way that I am less qualified to teach my own kids that some public school teacher.
The court’s and judge’s ruling is bogus. A one on one education is always superior to classroom settings if for no other reason than the time can be taken to make sure of mastery of the material.
You also learn as you go as a parent. That mother homeschooled several other children. She knows the material by now.
I know that. It’s just relatively.
At least we don’t have quite the problem with illegals that some places seem to have. It’s not Texico or Mexifornia.
I’d like to leave upon mr. mm’s retirement.
Job things are keeping us here for now. Can’t explain without risking compromising my screenname, but trust me, if it were in the cards, we’d be gone.
Besides, that's not even the most compellig reason to home school. The main reason is because it's freedom. That decision belongs to parents--not the government. Why is it that the only choice liberals/Democrats want to give parents is whether they can kill their unborn children?
And for anyone else who's curious, on home schooling in NYS, from the NYS Educ. Dept.....
Your post drips of fascism. Who decides what “results” are? To some people “results” are home mucch the 5 year old knows about anal sex. Parents should be able to teach their kids at home and your views should continue to not matter.
California is an extremely dark place, sunny beaches notwithstanding. But resistance is surely NOT futile. Even if you lose, you win by standing up for what is right. California is not worse than it is only because it is restrained to a certain extent by the other 49 states and our common rights under the constitution. If Cal. were to recede from the Union, who could guess how horrible it could get?
....hmmm, one wonders if this "so-called" judge would rule the same way if the family were Muslim?
Interesting. I thought I gave a fair assessment on my post. I don’t have a problem with homeschool totally, but for homeschoolers to not have some sort of accountability does not seem right. I don’t think I am asking too much. I mean after all don’t you want these kids to be ready for the real world??? There are kids who homeschool on the base and twice a year they go to the school for the DOD’s semi annual five subject test. I imagine they are doing ok or the school would not allow them homeschooling especially on base. Freedom is fine as long as you at least have a minimum standard that all kids must achieve.
Obama will apply this at a national level. According to him, the culture wars are over. Guess what side won.
It’d be cheaper to move than to remain in CA, even if they didn’t have children. CA ain’t cheap!
Wow! I am so thankful I no longer live in California.
I'm afraid this judge is very sadly mistaken with this decision. There's no way people are going to accept this kind of authority and there's certainly no way christian or conservative kids are going to just roll over and yield to liberal, progressive or moderates just to get along with these people.
The idea of a secular-progrssive groupthink which people of this kind are wanting to see happen and envisioning happen is never going to happen whether they want to accept it or not. There's simply no way America is going to become a secular-prigressive groupthink nation. people simply aren't going to allow it.
And if someone's idea of results is christians and conservatives buying into and assimilating into this secular-progressive groupthink culture that the NEA bunch is wanting, well they'd better forget about it becuase it just ain't going to happen.
This kind of BS and CF is why you're seeing more and more people leaving California. If these idiots in black robes and dress suits want to keep it up and turn California into a third world place, so be it. sooner or later these idiots will be out of a job and hopefully more sooner than later.
Regards.......
I agree. I have no problem with defining a minimum competency standard and requiring private, parochial, and homeschools to meet it. PROVIDED that the same standard is applied impartially to public schools as well.
Haven't seen the numbers for awhile, but pretty consistently homeschooled kids, on average, rank at the top on standardized tests, followed by private/parochial school kids with public school kids bringing up the rear.
Obviously there is excellence and mediocrity in all categories, but those are the rankings on average. So let's set the bar at whatever level the public school crowd is willing to apply to their own problem cases, and test impartially.
>We find no reason to strike down the Legislature’s evaluation of what constitutes an adequate education scheme sufficient to promote the ‘general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence,’” the court said in the case. “We agree … ‘the educational program of the State of California was designed to promote the general welfare of all the people and was not designed to accommodate the personal ideas of any individual in the field of education.’”
These people think they can teach “intelligence”? And they don’t have to accommodate anyone’s ideas about education? There ought to be a complete exodus of rational people from California. It won’t be long until educational testing will only test the student’s ability to regurgitate the subversive leftist garbage they seek to impart.
gnip...
While moving would solve the family’s problem, it would be disastrous for other homeschooling families in the State as it would leave the lower court’s decision to stand. I would hope that HSLDA would be able to get a restraining order while they fight the decision. If not, perhaps money can be found to put the children in a private school. However, whatever happens to this particular family, I think it is imperative that the case be fought to the highest level so that homeschooling is not put in jeopardy in California. Once legal precedence is established against individual’s rights in favor of the state, you will be hard pressed to get it overturned.
Come to Texas! More than a dozen of my friends and workmates (and I am not hidden in a Chirstian enclave...) homeshcool their kids. One of the reason some of them do it is the sheer weight of home-school support systems for the families.
Tell you what, they’d have a media circus on their hands if they tried that with us.
“I am wondering if it would be cheaper for this family to move out.....”
Here’s the problem with that: I know people in California who have large ministries that are seeing lots of people saved and descipled. It would be better if they stayed. But if it were me, and the state forced my kids into public schools, and I had no more legal options. I’d move.
"It is of paramount importance to re-establish and to strengthen in every way the Leninist principle of collective leadership....
"The Central Committee... vigorously condemns the cult of the individual as being alien to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism." (N. S. Khrushchev: Report to the Central Committee, 20th Congress of the CPSU, February 1956; London; 1956; p. 80-81).
Probably would be cheaper. Maybe God needs them there to fight it.
Then you've lost your freedom.
There's nothing that indicates that increased regulations and accountability to the state increases performance of a homeschool.
The vast majority of parents homeschool because of a concern for their child's education. They do fine and will continue to do fine, because they care.
The abuse of the system by the few is no reason to regulate the whole thing. It won't stop those abusing the system and it will only result in increased harrassment of those who don't need the regulation.
Like most laws: Law abiding citizens don't need them and criminals don't care.
In FL, the minimum requirements consist of taking a test once a year and demonstrating advancement. As for being ready for the real world, my kids do book work for a couple of hours a day, then hang out in the real world with mom and dad, like running work related errands, or at the store or the park or the beach, until all the zombie kids get come from their daily brainwashing.
And exactly how much "accountability" does a public school system (or any other government entity, for that matter) have, and more importantly, to whom?
the infowarrior
Notice it is the two youngest children they want because they believe they still have a chance of brainwashing them.
And who is the Speaker of the House? Or more accurately, where is the Speaker of the House from?
If that's true why do Philadelphia public schools exist?
And I suspect that is true for LA too.
They already do
I administered the Iowa tests to my kids myself and got to see them.
Someone ought to impeach that judge.
And the family in question should leave the state if it’s feasible.
The parents can’t be forced to keep their family in California. I’d move, and I’d send the kids to family out of state today.
The public schools don't have accountability.
In NY, if your homeschooled child's standardized test scores fall below a certain percentage, you can be put on homeschool probation. If it happens a second year in a row, you can be required to send your children to school.
What's the requirement for the public school if a public school child's scores are consistently below the set for homeschoolers?
To the Left, their agenda IS the will of the people. In the judge's mind, he didn't lie.
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