Ruben Navarrette's ~California court overreached on homeschooling case

When you think about it, much of education reform revolves around this notion of escaping. Those who advocate vouchers, or call for failing schools to be shut down, or - in this case - defend the right of parents to homeschool their children want to give students a means of escape from low-performing schools, poorly managed districts and all the rest. Those who resist such efforts have constructed all these elaborate arguments against reform efforts, but mainly what they want is to keep students from escaping in order to keep power concentrated in the public schools and the bureaucracies that run them.

Luckily homeschoolers have powerful allies.

And they have a heavyweight in their corner. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger immediately denounced the appeals court ruling and promised to change state law to guarantee that parents have the right to teach their children at home. Parents should decide what is best for their children, he said, and "not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education."

The governor is quite correct, and I'm glad to see him in this fight. Homeschooling isn't perfect. But look around. Neither is the public school system, which needs all the reform it can get. That's why we can't stop looking for viable alternatives that augment traditional teaching - and, just as importantly, challenge traditional thinking.

Read the whole column here.

Enlightening

What Makes a Creationist Tick?

30 percent of the nation's public schools aren't making adequate yearly progress

About 30 percent of the nation's schools aren't making adequate yearly progress - mostly because students didn't make steady gains in required math and reading exams given in grades three through eight and once in high school. Schools are judged not just on average scores but according to how groups of students perform, such as those with disabilities, limited English skills or minorities.

115th Carnival of Homeschooling: Oh, The Things That You’ll Do!

115th Carnival of Homeschooling: Oh, The Things That You’ll Do! hosted by Janice Campbell.

Enjoyable Column by Daniel Leddy

Putting the shallow pretense aside, opposition to home-schooling is really driven by its implications for the nation's public school system. However, rather than denying parents what must be deemed a fundamental right, the focus should be on making public education so attractive that more parents will select it.

Instead, the trend is in the opposite direction. Among other things, obsessive secularists and alternative lifestyle advocates have commandeered public education and are holding students hostage to their agendas.

For fed-up parents, home-schooling is one way out. No wonder so many of them are taking it.

Daniel Leddy's On The Law column appears each Tuesday on the Advance Op-Ed Page. His e-mail address is JudgeLeddy@si.rr.com.

Read the rest of Home-school decision gets a failing grade.

Home school student wins bee for second time

Home school student wins bee for second time read the rest of the story here.

According to Time

Sugarman said the fact that both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state superintendent have spoken out against this ruling means that, chances are, even if the case is held up in the California Supreme Court, uncredentialed parents will still be allowed to educate their children — that there is nothing that requires the state to aggressively go after people. Indeed, the education department (which is not involved in the lawsuit) will not want to waste their resources going after such parents, despite the "illegality" of their actions, leaving the Second District Court of Appeals opinion of the law unenforced.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The Spring into Action ~ Carnival of Homeschooling is up at, AT Home with Kris.

Ignorant College Editorial About Homeschooling

TITAN EDITORIAL: Ignorant education
Homeschooling advocates, headed mainly by Christian zealots, are calling for Gov. Schwarzenegger's protection of their fundamental right to teach their children to be bigots and idiots.

Obviously the Editorial Board is composed of bigots and idiots, with poor writing skills. Go read the article and comments and see for yourself.

Graphics Contest

The Homeschool Blog Awards need medium sized graphics for 2008. We will need a graphic for nominees and one for the winners. The same graphic may be used for both nominees and winners.

Here is how to enter.

• Post the icon on your blog and leave a comment telling me how to get the icon. (or)
• email the icon to me at osso(at)cableone(dot)net

I want to make sure people have enough time to be creative, so the first stage will last until the 28th of April, 2008. I am hoping for a couple dozen entries

Then in May I will display the icons and allow people to vote on the one they like best.

The rules for the contest are:

• The graphics have to be available for others to use. The only options I can think of are 1.) you created the graphic or 2.) the graphic is public domain.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger supports homeschooling

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will step in if the home schooling ruling is not overturned.

In a statement released Friday, the Governor says, "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their child'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."

Henry Cate isn't worried about CA ruling

Henry from Why Homeschool was interviewed by a reporter for The Mercury News.

While many home-schoolers are fearing the worst, Cate said he is not
worried. "The U.S. Supreme Court has said again and again that parents can
home-school their children."

Things not as bleak for California homeschoolers as paper implies

From The Madison Project

The LA Times got it wrong in the first sentence of their article. Parents without teaching credentials can still educate their children at home under the various exemptions to mandatory public school enrollment provided in § 48220 et seq. of the Cal. Ed. Code. The parents in this case lost because they claimed that the students were enrolled in a charter school and that with minimal supervision from the school, the children were free to skip classes so the mother could teach them at home. There is no basis in law for that argument. If only the parents had attempted to homeschool their kids in one of the statutorily prescribed methods, they would have prevailed.

Drop by Doc's to read her take on the issue.

Learn More about Helen Keller

at History is Elementary

Public school officials expect that the decision will be overturned

Public school officials said they do not expect the ruling, which will be appealed to the California Supreme Court, to stick. Frank Lynch, superintendent of Lompoc Unified School District, said he doesn't like to speculate on what might happen if the ruling is upheld."Once it's at the Supreme Court, I expect that the decision will be overturned," Lynch said

Homeschoolers' setback in appeals court ruling

From the San Francisco Chronicle

Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws."

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.
"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," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

This is one scary guy, note he doesn't think the primary purpose of the educational system is to EDUCATE CHILDREN, but to train them to be servants of the state.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when it comes to homeschooling."

Homeschoolers have at least one friend in the educational system.

But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in the case, said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

In fact the children's own lawyer isn't concerned with the children actually getting an education. She just wants them observed by people, other then the parents.

Be sure to read the article and comments.

The Mercury News gets homeschoolers aren't all the same

Once largely the province of the radical left and conservative Christians, home schooling has grown rapidly in recent years and in some circles is considered mainstream.

Much of the growth has been fueled by the Internet, which allows parents to shop for online lessons in geography and history, swap teaching responsibilities with other parents, and access countless homeschooling blogs, listservs and conferences.

How refreshing.

Why Homeschool: Phase two of the contest for Carnival of Homeschooling images

Why Homeschool: Phase two of the contest for Carnival of Homeschooling images

Hundreds of public school teachers in California are teaching with emergency credentials

First,due to a shortage of credentialled teachers, hundreds of teachers in California are teaching with emergency credentials. That is, they have passed a test (the California Basic Educational Skills Test CBEST) but do not have a teaching credential.

So apparently you can teach in the California public schools without being properly credentialed, but you can't homeschool.

Read Lois Kazakoff: Should homeschool teachers have credentials? and feel free to leave a comment.

More on the California Homeschooling Issue

A Judge in California has made it illegal (pending appeal) for parents to homeschool their young-uns. This begs the question - how should the 166,000 homeschool families that reside in California react? What would you do if you were in their situation? WAVA-FM/780 AM will take your calls toll free beginning at 5pm EST - 888.293.9282. They will also attempt to simulcast the broadcast for those outside the DC area, click here and joining the chat room.

The show can be listened to at 5pm EST, and the podcast can be listened to anytime after 7pm by going here.