Schwarzenegger denounces 'outrageous' homeschooling ruling

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/7/2008 | Jill Tucker and Bob Egelko

[GVnana]

(03-07) 13:37 PST SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised today to ensure that parents have the right to homeschool their children, after a state appeals court ruling severely restricted the practice in California.

"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," the governor said in a statement. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."

An estimated 166,000 children are homeschooled across the state.

The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said all children ages 6 to 18 must attend public or private school full-time until graduation from high school or be tutored at home by a credentialed teacher.

The Southern California case stemmed from a child welfare dispute involving the children of Phillip and Mary Long of Lynwood (Los Angeles County). The couple's eight children have been home-schooled by Mary Long, who holds no teaching credential. The children were also enrolled in a private school through an independent study program, which included quarterly home visits. Although the case did not involve the question of the children's truancy, the court decision broadly addressed the legality of homeschooling in California while specifically ruling that the Long family's situation violated state law.

[antiunion person]

Schwarzenkennedy is doing the “right” thing?? He better watch out. The CTA and NEA will tar and feather him for this one.

[prophetic]

Well even a broken click is right twice per day...

[calcowgirl]

What I read in that opinion directly contradicts the notion that home-schooling parents only have to file some forms and meet some low hurdles. The case seems to state explicitly that full teaching credentials are required of home-schooling parents, even while private schools can require far lower credentials.

I was reading it similarly. I just looked up a homeschool website that starts with the following:

State law requires all children between the ages of 6 and 18 to be enrolled in a public school,
unless they are attending a "full-time, private day school" or being instructed by a private
tutor who holds a valid California teaching certificate. (California Education Code §48222)

This allows homeschooling parents four options:
1. Establish a home-based private school
2. Enroll in a private school that offers independent study
3. Enroll in a public school that offers independent study
4. Utilize a credentialed tutor - or the parent, if so qualified

Given the judges ruling, it doesn't sound like Option 2 is really an option at all.

[BJungNan]

This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."

You mean an elected official might actually get enough gumption to challenge the ability of the courts to set public policy. If Arnold means it and attempts it, he will be my hero.

[calcowgirl]

Don’t hold him in too high esteem. Arnold and Wilson are responsible for 80% of these screwball judges.

This one was a gift from Deukmejian. (I looked him up when this story first hit)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this:

Bill on Home Schooling Rights Urged(Schwarzenegger called for reversal of court decision)

[calcowgirl]

Good quote!

First the border and now our English? What next?

Have you missed all the countries that now recognize (and even encourage) dual citizenship? A sad day, IMO.

[calcowgirl]

There is more information in the article that is informative:

In 2002, then-state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said homeschooling was illegal and that she would enforce the law. Eastin then asked the Legislature to take up the issue. It declined.

Six months later, O'Connell took over as state schools chief and opted for a hands-off approach, directing homeschooling families to the forms required to create a private school and telling local districts that truancy was their issue.

...Many homeschooling parents register as a private school with the state - a status that does not require credentialed teachers - and then enroll their children in their school. Across the state, there are 18,352 students attending private schools with five or fewer students, state education officials said.

[Merta]

Actually if you think about it, racists would be for more governmental regulation on foster homes, and other “plans” so that the Aryan Scandanavians can be reduced to model citizens of the State.

Why it seems like everybody must jump on the unscientific inhumane bandwagon, every intellectual, to follow a trend is beyond me, it is like Gertrude Stein’s admiration for Hitler. I could tell you a few of the things that Planned Parenthood, for example, is doing that would shock you. Just a few weeks ago or so, not too long ago, they actually held a conference on voting for a Jewish Community Center.

And this is by the Left’s favorite fascist group. Somehow if you argue that James Baldwin was a Communist/Socialist they will denounce it while looking for a Fascist underneath every bed. However, one of the clearest ones, Margaret Sanger, is ignored in terms of her fascist ideas.

Eugenics, the old Global Warming that’s what is for dinner.

[ROTB]

Indeed! People who homeschool are bright and motivated (read “taxpayers”). Don’t want to lose more of those!

[Misterioso]

I am not a troll. I have been a lurker since 2003. Mrs. Tiggywinkle met me in northern California at a In and Out burger in 2004. I gave her some Bush posters out of my car. I appreciate you all and what you have done for America. My lurking is often ,my posting will be few ,your to quick and amazing for me. From easternsky homepage.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Oh, how I wish I could think of the name of the comic actOR she looks just like.

Zelda, cut that out! :D

[steveyp]

I heartily agree with that. I’d work chem problems with a HS chum at her sorority (good gig for me). Anyway, her “sisters” were forever interrupting us so we could help them solve math problems they were encountering not in a math class but a class to teach them how to teach math.

What a box of rocks those kids were.

[humblegunner]

Always good to see one of the statists rear their ugly head on FR.

So I'm a statist because I think parents should have something more than good intentions before they try to teach?

Because I don't think any moron capable of reproduction is necessarily capable of teaching?

Wow, who knew.

You are dismissed, zippy.

[tutstar]

Next thing they’ll be going after people for having more than 2 children.

[tutstar]

Don’t let your rock fall on your head when you crawl back under it.

[humblegunner]

Don’t let your rock fall on your head when you crawl back under it.

You should write professionally. You're brilliant.

[exhaustedmomma]

Because I don't think any moron capable of reproduction is necessarily capable of teaching?

Then what you are saying is that the government should have control of all children at birth?

Potty training, walking, talking, table etiquitre, early child brain development, etc., prerequiste to any school setting begins with parents. Have you ever studied the education and success of the USA prior to the evolution of current public school system? Have you ever taken an education course required to become a teacher, or sat with those education majors in classrooms? Do you know that a person with not only degrees, but years of experience in a field, still have to become certified via "college course" to become certified? Again, have you sat in on any of those "courses"?

The Colfax children are the most unique example of homeschooling, as they were adopted & of various ethinic background. Homeschoolers Are at Home at Harvard

Short list of a few homeschooled people

ARTISTS:
Leonardo da Vinci
Claude Monet
John Singleton Copley
Andrew Wyeth
Jamie Wyeth

COMPOSERS:
Irving Berlin
Anton Bruckner
Felix Mendelssohn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Francis Poulenc

EDUCATORS:
Frederick Terman (Stanford University President)
William Samuel Johnson (Columbia University President)
Frank Vandiver (Texas A&M University President)
John Witherspoon (Princeton University President)

GENERALS:
Stonewall Jackson
Robert E. Lee
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton

INVENTORS:
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Cyrus McCormick
Wright Brothers: Orville and Wilbur Wright

PRESIDENTS:
John Quincy Adams
William Henry Harrison
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
James Madison
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
John Tyler
George Washington
Woodrow Wilson

PREACHERS & RELIGIOUS LEADERS:
Moses
Joan of Arc
John the Baptist
William Cary
Jonathan Edwards
Phillip Melanchthon
Dwight L. Moody
John Newton
John Owen
Charles Wesley
John Wesley
Brigham Young

SCIENTISTS:
George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Blaise Pascal
Booker T. Washington

STATESMEN:
Konrad Adenauer
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Henry Clay

U.S SUPPREME COURT JUDGES:
John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge

WRITERS:
Hans Christian Andersen
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
Charles Dickens
Bret Harte
C.S. Lewis
Sean O'Casey
George Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
Mercy Warren
Daniel Webster
Phillis Wheatley

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION DELEGATES:
Richard Basset (Governor of Delaware)
William Blount (U.S. Senator)
George Clymer (U.S. Representative)
William Few (U.S. Senator)
Benjamin Franklin (Inventor and Statesman)
William Houston (Lawyer)
William S. Johnson (President of Columbia C.)
William Livingston (Governor of New Jersey)
James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
George Mason
John Francis Mercer (U.S. Representative)
Charles Pickney III (Governor of S. Carolina)
John Rutledge (Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court)
Richard D. Spaight (Governor of N. Carolina)
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon (President of Princeton U.)
George Wythe (Justice of Virginia High Court)

OTHERS: Abigail Adams (Wife of John Adams)
Ansel Adams (Photographer)
Clara Barton (Started the Red Cross)
John Burroughs (Naturalist)
Andrew Carnegie (Industrialist)
Charles Chaplin (Actor)
George Rogers Clark - Explorer
Noel Coward (Playwright)
John Paul Jones (Father of the American Navy)
Sandra Day O'Connor
Tamara McKinney (World Cup Skier)
John Stuart Mill (Economist)
Charles Louis Montesquieu (Philosopher)
Florence Nightingale (Nurse)
Sally Ride (Astronaut)
Bill Ridell (Newspaperman)
George Rogers Clark (Explorer)
Will Rogers (Humorist)
Jim Ryan (World Runner)
Albert Schweitzer (Physician)
Leo Tolstoy
Martha Washington (Wife of George Washington)

You are dismissed, zippy.

[GVnana]

Done. Thanks for posting.

[Elsie]

The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said all children ages 6 to 18 must attend public or private school full-time until graduation from high school or be tutored at home by a credentialed teacher.

It's GOOD to be the King!