California Goes Berserk! Part 2

The third California law that changed has to do with homeschooling. So that's why a separate entry in this blog.

A couple of months ago, a Los Angeles appellate judge handed down his opinion in a case against a homeschooling family. Although not the best family to represent homeschoolers (apparently the family has its problems), the judge, ALSO handed down his opinion about homeschooling.

Which, in effect, changed the way homeschooling is done is California.

Now, technically, there is no such thing as homeschooling in California. There are several ways a parent can school their child(ren) at home, and the most popular way is for a parent to sign up as a private school. Another popular way is to be under an "umbrella school", which is basically being enrolled in a private school, but the children do the school work at home under the supervision of their parents. The latter is what this homeschooling family was doing.

This judge basically said that any parent who is schooling their child at home has to have a teaching credential. So the homeschoolers in California (and across the nation) are now upset -- with many being in a panic.

The national homeschool organization Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) got involved in this case after thoroughly looking at it. Several California homeschool organizations also did the same. Now all of them are working together to depublish the case so that California homeschoolers can continue as they were.

You can read about this on HSLDA's web site here: http://hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=4831

Now, this has really unsettled me -- this and that new law that Schwarzenegger just recently signed into law about *having* to teach alternative lifestyles equally with mom/dad/marriage/heterosexual (or face hefty fines and/or jail time!) in the public schools. This was one of the major issues the judge had in this case, that the family was ONLY teaching Christian values. After all the investment (time and money and emotional committment) I’ve now put into homeschooling, and feeling safe and secure in doing so, I feel like I’m back in the ‘70s again with this ruling. I think I'm going to see about getting a teaching credential just to be on the safe side in case this has repercussions across the states. There are so many people out there anyway who would like to see homeschooling outlawed again across the nation, and many of them are very verbal and antagonistic. This ruling only gives them fuel for their fire.

Add to that, there are people in California pushing for an "anti-spanking" law. Sweden has one, I understand, but their culture is a bit different than ours, and I think that it's not working great there, either. Anyway, the bill in California was introduced last year. I just did some research on that spanking law because I didn't remember if it was ever passed. That spanking law was rejected. But apparently just having it introduced has caused some social workers and people to try and enforce it! There are laws on the books in California, but it's for actual beating and abuse -- and they've been there a long time.

Now this is what worries me: the mindset of people, especially social workers. By having the judge overturn homeschooling in California, and also by having that anti-spanking law introduced, there will be people who remember these NOT as being introduced or over overturned, but as being actual law.

A friend told me, "A friend was turned in over the spanking issue, and the social worker said an open hand to the rear was the only legal way." See, this is the perfect example of someone incorporating an introduced -- but controversial -- bill into their thinking (although erroneously) and believing that it passed. That bill stated that even an open-hand swat would be illegal (to kids under 3 or 4). There's nothing actually on the books about "open-hand" at all that I found.

From the chatter on the internet of people, parents and attorneys, it seems the general consensus is that as of that ruling, even though from a lower court, parents having their kids schooled at home is now illegal in California unless the parent is a certified teacher -- even though the ruling is being appealed. In other words, anyone schooling their kids at home, even under an umbrella school with certified teachers, can now find themselves in trouble – unless at least one of the parents holds a teaching credential. Just as with that spanking bill, I can now see social workers going after homeschoolers to see if the parents are credentialed teachers -- even if the ruling is overturned at the State Supreme Court level. A very dangerous atmosphere for homeschoolers in California has now been created in my opinion!

Upon hearing the judge's opinion, the governor of California came out publicly and said, 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.

BRAVO FOR ARNOLD! Sometimes he does surprise me... especially his wording about protecting parents' rights. 'Course, then he'll do something really stupid, like signing that "alternative lifestyles" bill... Hmmmm... just got to thinking... for the governor to take a public stand on this, will that affect the case? You know, undue influence or something? Is this a trial with a jury? Not sure how this works...

Okay, here's another tidbit about the schools in California:

Did you hear that Arnold cut $40 BILLION from the education budget??? My sister-in-law, who is director of the music program for the Capistrano School District, has just lost her job. She was very optimistic, though, saying they would assign her as a principal at a school -- and you know what? She was right! Hallaluja! But it does make me wonder who DID have to go... Music, can you believe that?

Here in New Mexico we're just plodding along... whew! But with California being a huge state, this could mean repercussions across the nation for all of us homeschoolers. So we need to be hyper-alert about anything going on in our own legislatures.