Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council writes about the recent "home-schoolers are criminals" decision in California: What started out as a simple child welfare case in California has resulted in the most sweeping rejection of homeschooling in state history. By a 3-0 decision, a panel of appellate court judges sent families reeling with the verdict that parents don't have a constitutional right to homeschool their children without obtaining state teaching credentials. The ruling, which completely blindsided social conservatives, turned an isolated family incident into a broad indictment of the entire homeschooling community.
The court was asked to consider whether homeschooling was facilitating the opportunity for a set of parents to physically and emotionally mistreat their children. Based on that one specific incident, the panel used the opportunity not just to resolve the situation at hand but to potentially ban homeschooling across the state. According to the opinion, the court based its judgment on a California statute which says that children ages six to 18 must attend a full-time day school (public or private) or "be instructed by a tutor holding state credentials for the child's grade level."
Since the ruling was released, Justice H. Walter Croskey has become the focus of national outrage for suggesting that parents who fail to comply with California's statute should be criminally prosecuted.
Although the ruling will likely be overturned, its implications alarm me as a homeschooling parent. This court is threatening to usurp a fundamental right of parents based on an interpretation of a 40-year-old statute that has never been construed as a threat to homeschooling. The panel is also creating a foothold for other courts and politicians to discredit school choice. This case could become a rallying cry to crack down on homeschooling everywhere. We could start to see these challenges to school choice erupt in courts across the 19 states that don't have homeschooling laws on the books. Whether they do so because of their religious and moral beliefs or because of the dismal performance of local schools, parents should be the ultimate authority on what learning environment is best for their children.
As long as safeguards are in place to ensure that students are keeping pace with the national standards and test scores, homeschooling should continue to be a viable option for all parents. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) began working to achieve just that by launching an aggressive petition drive yesterday to overturn the ruling. Under California law, if enough residents believe the opinion was wrongly decided, they can urge the state Supreme Court to "depublish" the opinion...
You can find out more at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) web page, including an online petition you can sign.
