Posted by Susan Richman on August 18 2008 at 10:02:02:
The Wall Street Journal weighed in on the recent CA court case where judges reversed their earlier decision about the legality of homeschooling in the state. Here is a sampling of the article:
Homeschool Victory
August 16, 2008; Page A10
"Hold on to your hats. Common sense and constitutionalism have prevailed in the California judiciary. Last week, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles declared that parents who homeschool don´t need teaching credentials in order to educate their own children.
"Amazingly, the three judges were overturning their own February decision. We quote from their recent revelation: ´It is important to recognize that it is not for us to consider, as a matter of policy, whether homeschooling should be permitted in California. That job is for the Legislature. It is not the duty of the courts to make the law; we endeavor to interpret it.´
"What prompted this fit of judicial restraint?
"In a case that provoked outrage across the country, lawyers for the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services earlier this year invoked the state´s truancy laws to place two homeschooled children into public schools after reports of abuse by their father. The California Teachers Association then accepted the court´s invitation to take part in the case, arguing that "parents do not have an unfettered right to dictate the terms of their children´s education." The court agreed, at least at first, broadening a case about the well-being of two children into an overreaching statement about the adequacy of homeschool environments across the state.
"...The facts are clearly on the side of these families. A 2003 study by the National Center on Educational Statistics found that a third of parents who homeschool in the U.S. do so out of concerns over safety and drugs at their local schools. Another third did so for religious or moral reasons, and 16% felt they could provide better academic instruction than a traditional school. By the way, homeschooled kids do perform as well or better on state exams and in college admissions than do students in regular schools.
"There will be a new proceeding to determine how to handle the two children who had been abused, as there should be. But in a rare victory for parental choice, the public school monopoly won´t be able to exploit a bad case to declare that homeschooling is unconstitutional. We look forward to more reports of California judges changing their minds."