California Homeschoolers: You Have No Constitutional Right To Do It
March 10, 2008That according to the ruling of last week as reported by Christianity Today:
“California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey for California’s Second District Court of Appeal. The parents, identified in court papers only by the last initial L, but identified by several news organizations as Phillip and Mary Long, told the court that their religious beliefs for homeschooling “are based on biblical teachings and principles.” But that’s not enough for an exemption from California education requirements, the court ruled February 28. “Such sparse representations are too easily asserted by any parent who wishes to homeschool his or her child,” Croskey wrote.
And now the most important part:
The court ruled that minor children must attend a public school unless the child attends a private school or is taught by a teacher with a valid state teaching license.
The homeschoolers will not be happy with this one. Education isn’t about the individual but how individuals are prepared to be productive and integrated members of society. Hence, one must adhere to societal standards rather than personal. The failure to apprehend that education’s purpose is to make educated and learned citizens is at the root of the homeschooling movement. By definition, homeschooling is exclusionary and segregationist. That is why it is problematic from both a social and theological point of view. The California court has ruled rightly and wisely.
UPDATE: It seems the CT article didn’t include all the relevant information- which Drew provides. Drew’s observations don’t alter my own assessment.
Can’t conservative Christian media tell the truth for a change? Good God. Here is another angle on the same ruling here.
The parents screwed up in this case. This is the summary of the ruling:
“It is clear to us that enrollment and
attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor
children unless (1) the child is enrolled in a private full-time day school and actually
attends that private school, (2) the child is tutored by a person holding a valid state
teaching credential for the grade being taught, or (3) one of the other few statutory
exemptions to compulsory public school attendance (Ed. Code, § 48220 et seq.) applies
to the child. Because the parents in this case have not demonstrated that any of these
exemptions apply to their children, we will grant the petition for extraordinary writ.”
Look at #3. There are additional expemptions for private schooling there which I read (and I don’t know why).
Cheers.
[...] Christianity Today (HT: Jim West): The parents, identified in court papers only by the last initial L, but identified by several [...]
So with the facts straighted out, I also think that your assessment at the end of it all is still correct, and even further substantiated. I would imagine that Christianity Today has a lot of homeschool proponents in their subscriber base hence the pandering a bit in their presentation of the legislation.
The fact that this reveals that homeschooling proponents are over-zealously freaking out at a misinterpretation of the ruling says A) they are not very good critical investigators which B) substantiates the ruling of the court that the family in question are not good exemplars of good pedagogy and C) that homeschooling, in my wife’s apt description, is “selfish” since it does not teach our kids how to bee effective agents of change in the culture at large - Patrick Henry College notwithstanding.
If CA requires strict standards and certifications for homeschooling and is actually seeing to it that those standards are enforced, good for CA! States are the ones who need to enforce accreditation standards and the federal government needs to give them the freedom to legislate rather than the absurdities of NCLB or allowing homeschoolers to run rampant without adhering to standards. This kind of ruling splits the difference between those positions rather nicely by saying that CA is not going to allow parents without any educational training to dictate what education actually means!
Hi Jim.
1. You say that homeschooling is problematic from a social point of view. But many homeschooled kids interact with people, both children and adults. There are a lot of homeschooling networks, and kids take field trips. Rod Dreher shows in his book, Crunchy Cons, that homeschooled kids are more polite than kids from public schools. Who says that public schools are good at socially equipping our kids?
2. Homeschooled kids excel academically. Can you say the same about a lot of kids in public schools?
3. You say that homeschooling is theologically problematic. How so? Is it because you want kids to interact with people of other faiths? That will come down the road, but what is wrong with them learning about their own faith first? Homeschooling is a good way to do that.
The California decision is tyrannical.
1- I’m not talking about social interaction- I’m talking about the wider needs of society in contrast to the narrow concerns of the individual. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is what I mean.
2- There are more kids from public school excelling in all academic programs.
3- It is theologically problematic because it is a withdrawal from society.
Yeek! I’m gonna get arrested.
Jim, if you saw the pathetic state of the public schools in my district, and were faced with the price of the private schools, you’d likely opt to home-school your own children, as that’s the only way you’re going to get, as you say, “educated and learned citizens” if you can’t afford the tuition at private schools (roughly $5K/year for a middling school, $10K/year for a good one).
That said, I was apalled to hear that there are actually people teaching children (their own loving parents though they may be!) who don’t have teaching credentials! Getting one isn’t a hardship in California, in fact it’s quite easy if you’re not a dolt. I think most people who give a pass to homeschooling assumed (like myself) that the parents have undergone the training and gained an education themselves, including going through the very nearly proforma step of getting a teaching credential. Requiring them to be credentialed makes sense, and it is the law, after all.
We’ll just have to wait and see whether this ruling holds up, though. Our Governator has a way of getting what he wants….
What wider needs? If homeschooled kids are getting a good education and are learning how to be polite, which they are, then they can contribute to society.
James how do homeschooled kids learn to cooperate with people who are different in a pluralistic society? Dealing with difference and learning how to critically think through ideas that do not match your own moral compass are vital skills that homeschooling by necessity delimits. This is not to say that some homeschooling situations are not good at working through these pedagogical barriers. But the lion’s share act in the opposite direction by training kids how to be dogmatically sectarian and train them to live within the frame of an us vs. them mentality. Those wider needs.
Also, being polite is not necessarily a public good - especially when one needs to be rather impolite in the face of injustices in the world. Again, learning how to work in the midst of competing ideologies and interests is key in getting this done. Homeschooling does not begin with the philosophy that this is a good, but often quite literally an evil (see Tower of Babel).
All of this is before we even get to the religious issue which becomes a more hostile agent of sectarian withdrawal than an agent of change that speaks for the good of the masses. See: Patrick Henry College for a case study of what this looks like.
To say that these clear sectarian tendencies do not exist in homeschooled situations does not take into account the very purpose of them.
Two better solutions: get on your school board to change things and make that your hobby if your public school system is a problem. Many of them are. As a kid I moved three times to get into the best possible public school. I got a damn good education. My life long friends came later on. Second, there are always good private schooling alternatives somewhere. the one environment I cannot speak as fluently about are rural areas where geography might not make that possible. But the districts draw such a small amount of students they are flexible and can seek grants from the state. I know of a couple of districts not too far from where I am that do this.
Finally, it’s never about money, it’s always about good teaching and pedagogy - period. Who gives a damn about the age of a textbook if the person teaching your kids does not care about them. That’s always the issue and the research cannot make that more clear. I would take a superb teacher with a 19th century textbook, a slide rule, and a love for the art of being a teacher than a recent graduate student from Harvard who really does not give a damn about my kid, but is already prepping himself for a career as a Superintendent.
“Education isn’t about the individual but how individuals are prepared to be productive and integrated members of society. ”
Plato might agree, in his servile society; but normal people put their own needs first.
“Society” is a myth; what this means is “People must bring up their children in the manner determined by those people who control the media agenda”.
Homeschoolers often talk about socialization as if what is meant is “being polite” or “having friends”. Socialization is learning about and learning to accept the norms of society. Thank you, Jim and Drew for making this explicit. Too many who argue against homeschooling water this point down.
And yet, one of ,our distinctive social norms is individualism. We are expected, as a society, to provide a nurturing and hospitable environment for the individual to discover her self, grow, and become accomplished enough for the pursuit of happiness. Since we are social animals, we accomplish our (individual) goals not only through our individual efforts, but by collectively helping, and being helped by, others.