Posted on 03/11/2007 11:50:14 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
A Superior Court judge in New Jersey says homeschooling is just about the same as deliberate child abuse.
In fact, he says, he just might name a school district in his state as a defendant in a current court dispute, citing the district's "shocking" failure to monitor and test all students – including homeschoolers.
"In today's threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical, but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children? A child in New Jersey, who recently was found unfed and locked in a putrid bedroom was allegedly 'homeschooled' and because no one, such as a teacher or nurse, was able to observe any abuse in a school setting, it went undiscovered," wrote Judge Thomas Zampino in a case that came before him.
That's even though New Jersey state law does forbid child abuse, and its regulations regarding homeschooling say parents or guardians are allowed "to educate the child at home." Further, the state law notes they are not required to submit any type of communication of intent to a local school board, nor are parents required to have their plans approved by a board.
(Story continues below)
In fact, state law allows a school board in New Jersey to act against a homeschooling parent only if there is "credible evidence that the parent, guardian or other person having custody or control of a school-age child is not causing the child either to attend school (public or nonpublic) or to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school …"
Despite New Jersey state law, Zampino insists what heeds to happen is this:
Certain basic requirements and safeguards should be implemented that protect all children, once the decision to "homeschool" a child has been made by the parents, as follows: 1. A parent/guardian who seeks to homeschool his/her child(ren) must register the child(ren) in their home school district, so that no child slips through the cracks of our education system.
2. A curriculum must be presented and filed with the local board of education and some "homeschool" training seminar required for the teaching parent (a four-hour video would suffice).
3. Testing on the same standardized basis for all students shall be administered to all homeschool children on an annual basis to measure whether "equivalent instruction" is being received by a child "elsewhere than at school."
A New Jersey lawyer familiar with homeschooling precedents in his state told WND the judge suggests the parents in the divorce dispute work it out. But he said the judge's additional comments are alarming.
"He's presenting this as though it's authority," Christopher Brennan said. "He's just making this up, with no basis whatsoever, saying that this is what should be done."
The judge, in fact, didn't stop with just the New Jersey situation.
"Here, [a witness in court] testified that approximately two million of today's fifty five million school age children are presently being homeschooled in the United States. Such numbers outside the public school system cannot be left without any review requirements under the law," Zampino said.
"How can we have as existing law for these children, only two court decisions that are over 40 years old, and no state statute that outlines a framework for school districts when parents choose this alternative for their children" the judge asked.
The Home School Legal Defense Association, which works worldwide on behalf of homeschool students and projects, said it couldn't comment on the specific issues in the case. But the organization did note that the judge's words did not change New Jersey law.
"In order to protect individual freedoms, the founders of our nation wanted to be sure that governmental powers did not become overly concentrated. To prevent this, they wisely split power into three branches – legislative, judicial and executive. As the founders conceived it, the judicial branch has no power to make new laws. That power belongs to the legislature working through representatives elected by the people," the group said in a statement.
Brennan, however, noted that once a judge's opinion becomes available, it is easy for another judge to quote from that, or even cite it as a conclusion.
"What really is problematic [is] this is symptomatic of classic judicial activism. The Legislature clearly spells out what's required to educate a child in the state of New Jersey," Brennan said. "They've said, 'This is the requirement,' and it's just that they [homeschooling parents] have to provide an equivalent instruction."
The judge said the status of homeschooling, to him, isn't acceptable. His comments were prompted by concerns by Stephen Hamilton that his wife, Tara Hamilton, from whom he separated in 2006, was adequately teaching their children at home.
"In questioning by this court, the mother made it clear that in the ten years she had been homeschooling the children, no one from any Board of Education in Montclair (where they lived until October 2006) ever visited the home. Ms. Hamilton never went to any school or board office, no lesson plan was ever reviewed and no progress report or testing of the children was ever performed. This is shocking to the court," he wrote.
"In this day and age where we seek to protect children from harm and sexual predators, so many children are left unsupervised. It is further shocking to this court that in September, 2001 the New Jersey Department of Education published answers to frequently asked questions about homeschooling as a guide to local school districts that listed the following:
1. Parents/Guardians are not required by law to notify their public school district of their intention to educate the child elsewhere than at school. 2. The law does not require or authorize the local board of education to review and approve the curriculum or program of a child educated elsewhere than at school.
3. No certification to teach is required to be held by the parent.
4. No standardized test(s) are administered to the children.
The judge, however, said he wasn't attacking homeschooling.
His comments, rather, are "a statement that it is necessary to register those children for whom this alternative is chosen and to monitor that their educational needs are being adequately nurtured. Judicial interpretation of the statute requires such steps to measure 'equivalent instruction' when the alternative 'elsewhere than at school' is chosen by parents.'"
In the case at hand, involving the Hamilton family, the judge said the father has an administrative remedy at hand. He may contact the Ridgewood Board of Education "and the school district will file suit … against Ms. Hamilton for the children's non-attendance at school." When she then notifies the court she's chosen homeschooling she will then be required to show the school district it is equivalent, the judge said.
The HSLDA said the judge probably would not have been shocked had he been aware that New Jersey's homeschooling laws are similar to those in other states.
"The judge is mistaken, pure and simple," Brennan told WND. "A judge can be mistaken."
He said the two million students homeschooled in the United States now are not being neglected, either. They are, in fact, protected from being molested by teachers, which while rare, does happen.
In a commentary on the Constitutionally Correct site, the writers said New Jersey judges "who legislate from the bench are giving Massachusetts judges (and German jack boots) a run for their money. … The court's opinion is a judicial temper tantrum. The judge wails that New Jersey law doesn't fit his idea of what the law should be. Not only does New Jersey law not require government monitoring and testing of homeschoolers, the state gives public schools no legal authorization to do so…"
The reference to Germany was about an issue on which WND has reported extensively. In that case, police took into custody a 15-year-old student, Melissa Busekros, and a judge ordered her into a psychiatric hospital, for being homeschooled, which remains illegal in that country.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany, has said that "the public has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different worldviews and in integrating minorities into the population as a whole."
That means, worldviews that do not align with those taught in Germany's public schools must be stamped out, he said.
The HSLD has called the case an "outrage."
Further, American homeschoolers should be concerned, as WND has reported, because the ease with which similar restrictions on free choice could be imposed in the United States.
Michael Farris, cofounder of the HSLDA, has called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the right of parents to educate their children at home, in light of such developments in Europe.
Unfortunately, by age 11, his confidence in his ability was permanently destroyed by the government school.
I'm sorry to hear that. We've had a child who was reading at a second grade level by her third birthday, another who is just now "getting it" at 9 1/2, and everything in between. It's amazing how quick children can learn to read when they are ready and amazing how hard it is for those who aren't ready yet. Government schools are terrible places for both the early and late readers.
Will he say, "Of course, there are going to be exceptions,"...?
If that is the case, the logic must cut both ways.
Which means you will find emotionally and educationally abused children within the public school system.
This jerk needs a big cup of stfu.
Good point. Zampino's comments speak volumes about judicial activism.
So how does judge Zampino explain the fact that an inordinate number of Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee champs are home schooled students?
Obviously the kids are locked in closets with nothing but a dictionary and are beaten if they don't learn at least 100 new words a day.
Yes he was, and it goes much deeper than that. He attacks the very rights of parents to raise & educate their children the way they see fit.
By saying that he is not attacking homeschooling, this judge shows that his real aim is at parenting in general, making the state department of education the body that monitors and enforces the "safe and secure welfare" of all households. That is why anyone who values their rights as a parent but doesn't homeschool should still keep an eye on homeschooling legislation.
Good point. Also, the article appropriately cites HSLDA: " the organization did note that the judge's words did not change New Jersey law. "In order to protect individual freedoms, the founders of our nation wanted to be sure that governmental powers did not become overly concentrated. To prevent this, they wisely split power into three branches – legislative, judicial and executive. As the founders conceived it, the judicial branch has no power to make new laws. That power belongs to the legislature working through representatives elected by the people," the group said in a statement.
I am a Roman Catholic. My Church prohibits me from belonging to the Masonic Order. That having been said, don't you think that the crack about the judge being a "Lodge member" is a bit over the top and an unnecessary insult to many fine men who are members of the "Lodge?"
Most certainly the gummint is not entitled to require that my children or anyone else's be taught "fisting" techniques, taught the wonders of Heather has Two Mommies or Daddy's Roommate, or taught that sexual activity is some sort of constitutional right for 12-year-olds. Much less is the gummint's P.S. 666 entitled to sneak 14 year old Jezebel off to the nearest Planned Barrenhood abortion mill to "confidentially" cover up her P.S. 666 approved social behavior that led to her condition so that only the skewel officials and NOT her parents will know what she is up to.
The gummint and ITS skewels are also not entitled to keep the kids abandoned to those skewels in academic ignorance while providing all the bells and whistles (at taxpayers' expense) like football, basketball, hockey, swimming pools, polo ponies or whatever that makes gummint edjamakashun about 4 or 5 times as expensive as private education and no more than 20% as effective in the delivery of knowledge.
I have no right, even as a taxpayer, to force gummint skewels to teach Catholicism. Atheists have no right to force those skewels to teach atheism. That is in the nature of the commonly tax-funded monster known as gummint edjamakashun. By teaching nothing on religion (and what could the gummint skewels teach on religion short of civil war?), these skewels teach, by omission, that religion isn't very important. I don't want to subsidize that particular lie. Jefferson, not himself a very partisan denominationalist, did observe that there is no tyranny worse than one which forces a man to subsidize ideas which he hates. And no, that tyranny is no more justified than Catholics making Catholic education of non-Catholics in gummint skewels mandatory.
Fortunately there is an obvious solution to these problems without further subsidy of gummint administered ignorance. Erect a (what shall we call it? I know:) "wall of separation" between gummint and education. No one then forces me to pay to entertain their children. Nor do they have to pay for mine. Those without kids don't have to pay at all unless they wish to pay.
ME: Better a few cases of "education abuse" than the multitude of abuses certain to occur when the 900 pound bureaucratic gorilla is loosed on home schoolers.
THEE: Tell that to the little girl whose dad crawls into her bed every night. Tell that to the "homeschooled" kid whose mother didn't want to be torn away from her stories, so she let them run free without any schooling. Tell that to the kid who can't find a job because his education prepared him with no marketable skills. Lest you think I'm exaggerating, this goes on every day in America. It by no means is intended to be a slur against the overwhelming majority of homeschoolers who are good and decent folks - but it is a well-deserved slur upon those few who are monsters.
ME: I agree that there are abuses. The issue I tried to raise, and clearly failed to in terms which you would accept, was that beyond a certain point, we have to accept some failure in everything. Cars do sometimes turn over, planes do sometimes crash, and government just can't be perfected.
Come to think of it, people just refuse to be good all the time. What you are arguing is that we should be willing to trust government outside of the carefully crafted chains forged for it by the Founders. I am not willing to so do.
Better that a few daughters suffer "Daddy Dear" than a swarm of bureaucrats be allowed to take a multitude ofchildren from their homes and be put into the maw of Child Protective Services" where they will be physically and/or sexually abused more than if the state was kept within Constitutional boundaries.
Yes, some child abuse will occur. Better that than the vastly larger number of abuses from allowing government to interfere with family.
Sorry, I just don't believe that government can be effective in the realm of child raising as the final authority. The numbers also support my, not thee.
I wonder if you realize that you are attempting to advocate the perfectability of government?
By the way, I like the historical citations in your about page. 'Tis a pity that they can't be made required reading for the Democratic PArty members.
GG
I grew up across the street from a kid whose welfare mother used to lock him in his bedroom all day while she went out. As far as I know, "no one, such as a teacher or nurse, was able to observe any abuse in a school setting, it went undiscovered." She also raised him on Coke, so most of his baby teeth rotted out before they fell out.
"Here, [a witness in court] testified that approximately two million of today's fifty five million school age children are presently being homeschooled in the United States.
Wow! That's great news. 5% of school-age children are homeschooled. That compares to 10% of school-age children in private schools. So 15% are escaping the gov't school dragnet. That's better than 10%!
Stat of the day: Public school teachers send their kids to private school at twice the rate of the rest of the population; 20% to 10%.
This kind of abuse is far worse than physical abuse, since it can lead children into serious sin, which is why Jesus said, " But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:6)
Children are also indoctrinated, in the most insidious way, into believing that religion is unimportant. The powerful unspoken message of the godless curriculum is, "do religion with the few minutes of the day not taken up with school and homework. God is not worth wasting class time on." A direct attack on religion would actually be less damaging to the spiritual lives of children.
They were required reading in a law school seminar on the law of war.
Demonizing parents!? What a lowlife.
{Wolfgang Drautz, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany, has said that "the public has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different worldviews and in integrating minorities into the population as a whole."}
That's all that needs to be seen.
It's no accident that Nazism arose in the most-schooled country in Europe, and the birthplace of compulsory gov't schooling.
Prussia was prepared to use bayonets on its own people as readily as it wielded them against others, so it’s not all that surprising the human race got its first effective secular compulsion schooling out of Prussia in 1819, the same year Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, set in the darkness of far-off Germany, was published in England. Schule came after more than a decade of deliberations, commissions, testimony, and debate. For a brief, hopeful moment, Humboldt’s brilliant arguments for a high-level no-holds-barred, free-swinging, universal, intellectual course of study for all, full of variety, free debate, rich experience, and personalized curricula almost won the day. What a different world we would have today if Humboldt had won the Prussian debate, but the forces backing Baron vom Stein won instead. And that has made all the difference.The Prussian mind, which carried the day, held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army; 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues; 6) National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.
My blood pressure is sure up for this early in the morning.
Abortion compounds the tragedy of incest by forcing the mother to live with the fact that she's murdered her unborn child.
You could point your friend to these testimonies of post-abortive women.
Not really. It's just that intervening in child abuse is one of those proper roles of (state) government.
What you are arguing is that we should be willing to trust government outside of the carefully crafted chains forged for it by the Founders. I am not willing to so do.
The Founders left the States with broad discretion. Reviewing a parent's curriculum plan to enusre that parents who are taking their kids out of school are actually educating them, and not using it as a cover for allegations of abuse, is well within those bounds. Could it be abused? Probably. Should it therefore be rejected? Absolutely not - not when the possibility of abuse is weighed against the compelling interest the State has in ensuring educated citizens who are not abused, and in light of the minimal intrusion into the parent's privacy.
It should be noted that the slippery slope argument can be a logical fallacy.
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