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Dave Starr
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:52 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| As Kalifornia goes, so goes the nation. |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:58 pm |
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Steve Myers
Site Admin
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Court: No Constitutional Right to Educate Children at Home
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer
Parents do not have a right to home-school their children under the California Constitution, and must comply with the state’s compulsory education law even if they profess religious objections, this district’s Court of Appeal has ruled.
Holding that a couple who had “enrolled” their children in name only in a private school while keeping them at home to be instructed by a parent who was not a credentialed teacher had violated the compulsory education law, Div. Three on Thursday ruled that Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Stephen Marpet erred as a matter of law when he declined to order the parents to send two of the children to a public or private school on the grounds that the parents had a constitutional right to home-school the children.
The court directed the juvenile court to order that the children enroll in, and attend, a public or private school other than the school that had participated in the parents’ “ruse.”
The Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles had sought the order with respect to the youngest two of the couple’s eight children after an investigation by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services of reported physical and emotional mistreatment by the father revealed that none of the children had been educated in a public or private school, but had instead been instructed by their mother who was not credentialed as a teacher.
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/mcca030308.htm |
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Steve Myers |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:02 pm |
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FlintConservative
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| Once again Big Brother knows better than the parents. |
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:32 pm |
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andi03
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From what I understand there are accredited programs for parents that homeschool, the materials include textbooks, tests and Internet classes and even more.
Homeschooling has it's good side and bad side, mostly the parents, that is being whether they make it successful or not. My mom used to give the GED before she retired and a lot of the children that were homeschooled would blow the others out of the water with their test scores.
I have two cousins that were/are homeschooling their children and they are the most cerebral little cusses out there. But, the only downfall is when you are in a rural area with the next house being a mile away, hardly any interaction at all for the children...oy.
There is no way that I could homeschool, I don't have the patience, nor the organization skills that it takes to do this. They can do the voucher system but not let parents homeschool their children?
My children's school teachers can teach them the three R's but I will teach my children how to hunt, fish, start a campfire, be a good citizen, how to think logically and hubby will give them their religious training, fine, I will do the rest, let's see them take that away from me.....not. oy........ |
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Build a bridge and get over it! |
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Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:51 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Forget education read what some judge wants your kids to get out of school.
Homeschoolers' setback in appeals court ruling
Bob Egelko,Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 7, 2008
(03-06) 14:26 PST LOS ANGELES --
A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.
The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.
"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."
The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.
The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.
The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.
Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.
Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level.
"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," 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.
Union pleased with ruling
The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.
"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."
A spokesman for the state Department of Education said the agency is reviewing the decision to determine its impact on current policies and procedures. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when it comes to homeschooling."
Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which agreed earlier this week to represent Sunland Christian School and legally advise the Long family on a likely appeal to the state Supreme Court, said the appellate court ruling has set a precedent that can now be used to go after homeschoolers. "With this case law, anyone in California who is homeschooling without a teaching credential is subject to prosecution for truancy violation, which could require community service, heavy fines and possibly removal of their children under allegations of educational neglect," Dacus said.
Parents say they choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, from religious beliefs to disillusionment with the local public schools.
Homeschooling parent Debbie Schwarzer of Los Altos said she's ready for a fight.
Schwarzer runs Oak Hill Academy out of her Santa Clara County home. It is a state-registered private school with two students, she said, noting they are her own children, ages 10 and 12. She does not have a teaching credential, but she does have a law degree.
"I'm kind of hoping some truancy officer shows up on my doorstep," she said. "I'm ready. I have damn good arguments."
She opted to teach her children at home to better meet their needs.
The ruling, Schwarzer said, "stinks."
Began as child welfare case
The Long family legal battle didn't start out as a test case on the validity of homeschooling. It was a child welfare case.
A juvenile court judge looking into one child's complaint of mistreatment by Philip Long found that the children were being poorly educated but refused to order two of the children, ages 7 and 9, to be enrolled in a full-time school. He said parents in California have a right to educate their children at home.
The appeals court told the juvenile court judge to require the parents to comply with the law by enrolling their children in a school, but excluded the Sunland Christian School from enrolling the children because that institution "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education."
The decision could also affect other kinds of homeschooled children, including those enrolled in independent study or distance learning through public charter schools - a setup similar to the one the Longs have, Dacus said.
Charter school advocates disagreed, saying Thursday that charter schools are public and are required to employ only credentialed teachers to supervise students - whether in class or through independent study.
Ruling will apply statewide
Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the ruling would effectively ban homeschooling in the state.
"California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement.
But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in the case, said the ruling did not change the law.
"They just affirmed that the current California law, which has been unchanged since the last time it was ruled on in the 1950s, is that children have to be educated in a public school, an accredited private school, or with an accredited tutor," she said. "If they want to send them to a private Christian school, they can, but they have to actually go to the school and be taught by teachers."
Heimov 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." |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:02 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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Heimov 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."
And parents don't? |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:41 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| Ya those teachers have a really great track record protecting kids, and of course they know better than some uneducated dunce of a parent. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:41 am |
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