The State of Homeschooling in the State of California.

There has been much hubbub about the February 28th ruling of the California Appellate Court of the Second District on homeschooling. They have determined that Californians don't have a constitutional right to school their own children. The only way it would be permissible is if the parent had teaching credentials for the specific year they are schooling for. So therefore a person with 4th Grade credentials couldn't teach a 6th grader at home. They also quoted a statement from a 1961 court case which is as follows:

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in
good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means
of protecting the public welfare."

Now I don't know about you, but that sounds kind of fishy to me! OK, granted, I'm all for teaching a child good citizenship, we have WAY too little of that in the US! But patriotism and loyalty to the state and nation? I would have to agree with Adam Schaeffer of the Cato Institute who notes, "they are training children to be loyal subjects of the state, not free citizens of a republic." As far as I'm concerned, patriotism isn't something that's taught, it is something that grows in the heart of an individual when they see that their country is something to be proud of. Just because you are born someplace does not mean you HAVE to be patriotic. I can think of plenty of things that I'm embarrassed about my country and my government, however, I also see that our country has done great things and offered valuable contributions to the world, so therefore I have a certain degree of patriotism. Did I learn this in school? No. Did I expect someone to "teach" me to be a patriot? No. That is my own personal journey. My reasons for being patriotic are likely very different from my neighbor's or the guy's at the grocery store.

I also take huge offense to the fact that this court states that parents do NOT have a constitutional right to school their children at home. Technically, if you read the constitution, you will also find that we don't have the constitutional right to a tax-payer funded education either. In fact, education is not mentioned in the United States Constitution. The creators of this document most likely felt that matters such as education should be handled at a level closer to home via family, local government, etc... So... if a tax-payer funded education is just one of those "perks" that we've gained over the years, that's great! I'm glad that it is available to those who want to take advantage of this perk, BUT I sure as hell should have the right to "opt out" of said benefit if I see fit.

Now all that being said, it is quite obvious that the attack on homeschooling has absolutely NOTHING to do with constitutional rights, and EVERYTHING to do with MONEY. The more of us that yank our kids out of school, the less funding they have. And homeschooling is becoming the scapegoat for all the problems. We have "abandoned" the school system and therefore are getting them less funding which is causing all sorts of problems. Um, hello? If I'm not mistaken, even though I homeschool, I still pay taxes, therefore I STILL support the public school system! I mean seriously, did I miss a little box on my tax stuff saying I can just not pay taxes for schools?

This whole thing has just been scary to watch. You always think of California as the state with an abundance of open-minded individuals! Obviously I was wrong on that one. And although I think Texas is back-asswards on many occasions, I am thrilled that this state is one of the front-runners in homeschool rights. We have a lovely little Supreme Court ruling called "Leeper vs. Arlington, ISD" which was finalized in 1994 protecting the rights of homeschooling families in this state. Guess I won't be planning a move to Cali anytime soon! I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come and a whole bunch of other states jump on this asinine bandwagon. I also hope that the California Supreme Court overrules this decision and allows the families of California to continue with their homeschooling as they see fit. It looks as though "The Governator" is on their side, but really what can he do? He can speak out against the stupidity, but that's about all. I guess we just wait and see.