Back to school?
An opinion written by Justice H. Walter Croskey of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in California has caused an uproar in the home-schooling community, The San Diego Union-Tribune says. “Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” Croskey wrote.
The ruling sprang from a Los Angeles County social-service investigation. Following up an abuse complaint, social workers discovered that eight siblings were being home-schooled by their mother. An attorney representing the two youngest children asked a judge to order them to attend a traditional school, saying the home education was deficient. A judge agreed that the education was “lousy,” “meager” and “bad,” but he denied the request and said families had a constitutional right to home-school their children. The county appealed and the 2nd District court ordered the children to attend a school. Some legal observers say the ruling points up the need for better monitoring of home schooling in California, The Christian Science Monitor says:
As the [home-schooling] movement has grown, its autonomy has become worrisome to some. Concerns center mostly on the need for state accountability in ensuring that children are educated to a certain standard. But, as in the California case, the potential for child abuse is also becoming an issue.
California law does not specifically refer to home schooling, and stipulates two main exemptions to compulsory public school: enrollment in a full-time private school or instruction from a credentialed tutor.
Do you think states should exercise more control over home schooling to ensure that children are receiving an adequate education? Leave a comment below.
March 11th, 2008 @ 9:27 am
We need to be sure these children are ready to become successful adults. I believe most homeschooling parents are doing a great job, but what about the ones that are falling behind?
March 11th, 2008 @ 9:33 am
An architect writes:
“My wife is the lead instructor in a free- to-the-public Adult Education and Literacy program, based in a community college. Most of her students dropped out of public school for a myriad of reasons. She is normally very happy when a ‘home schooled’ teenager enrolls in the program, as they are usually more well prepared to take the GED exam than a graduate of a public school would be. She has encouraged many college graduates to take the GED exam if they scoff at their perceived lack of difficulty of the exam.
“The ruling by the judge in California that the home schooling parent should be credentialed as an educator, is ridiculous. This is simply another example of legislating from the bench. It also smacks of a Communistic state where the parents must give up their children to a state institution that supposedly knows much better how to raise their children for them. Chairman Mao would have loved this “judge” and looked forward to accepting the State of California into the fold.”
March 11th, 2008 @ 9:36 am
A district administrator writes:
“While some parents may not be the best qualified to home school, mandating that parents send their students into a system that they oppose because of lack of training should not be allowed. If the parents cannot afford a private education, I do not believe their students should be forced to accept social policies and agendas against their will.”
March 11th, 2008 @ 9:46 am
An architect writes:
“Home schooling should be permitted in every state; however, the states need to set standards for home schooling. All primary educators/parents are to be college-degreed (elementary or secondary) educators and hold a valid teachers license, including continuing-education requirements. Basically, states should hold the parent/educator to the same certification standards as public school classroom teachers. Home-schooled students should be required to take and pass state-sponsored yearly progress examinations. Those test results are to be shared with the state and local district school testing division as a check on yearly educational progress. The curriculum is to include a socialization participation requirement with other similarly aged children that are not daily participants in the home school setting. This could include documented participation in park/nationally organized athletic programs such as AAU teams, Little League, Pop Warner, YMCA leagues, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, community organized programs such as community theater productions and local public/service programs, etc. just to name a few out of the house opportunities. “It always should be recognized that parents are the first and most influential–positive or negative–educators of their children. Formal education–private or public–is the secondary educator with the ability to broaden the spectrum of student through expanded resources, exposure to social settings, diverse peer groups, opportunities for team – academic and athletic – building and dependence. Children spend only 25% of their week days and 17.8% of their school weeks in formal school classrooms. This is the reason–though not a new argument–that those who are home-school educators need to be held to the same qualifications as the classroom teachers in their states and local districts. Home schooling should be permitted in every state; however, minimum uniform standards are to be established for that method of education. Teaching to the minimum standards would restrict the learning potential, but with qualified home school educators having the standards as their base requirements, a very expansive and encompassing educational experience can be developed and executed that could provide education opportunities greater than what is offered by the local school districts due to restrictions in budget and local governing policies. The standards should be used as the platform with the opportunities to be greater than a traditional classroom setting could provide. “Yes, states do need to closely regulate home-schooling programs, but never prohibit that educational process.”
March 11th, 2008 @ 11:41 am
An architect writes:
“While the public school system is unarguably failing kids, home-schooled children are shining in our culture and winning national spelling bees. It is noteworthy that those who support governmental meddling would attack families that are taking care of their own children simply because they show in glowing ways how the public school systems is inept to the cultural and educational problems in America.
I wish our family was wired to handle home-schooling our own kids. Until then, I simply use this California example to show my kids why they need to engage the political system to stand for the family and against the mindless, mediocrity of those with an agenda to destroy this country.”
March 11th, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
The question is not whether some kids have been successful or will continue to be successful in a home-school setting.
The question is whether the state has a duty to step in and prevent children from receiving a deficient or inadequate education from an untrained and incompetent teacher, even if that teacher is the child’s parent.
March 13th, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
There are some parents that do a good job of home-schooling, but there are also those who just do not want to deal with their children, whether it is getting their homework done or just getting to school. I work at a public school and see them enroll the children in school for a while. Just as the teachers are getting the students up to speed, they pull them out again. I think there should be some kind of minimum standards for home-schooling.