A California court ruling was handed down today affecting the future of homeschooling in that State, and possibly across the country. The Second District court of appeal found it unlawful for parents to keep their children away from the public school system unless they held a teaching certification. The appellate court said that the law has been clear since 1953, and that parents who run afoul of this decision may be subject to criminal charges. California's largest teaching union was pleased with the decision. Lloyd Peters of the California Teacher's Association said,"We're pleased." (San Francisco Chronicle, 2008)
Home schooling is an educational system that has been growing in popularity the past few years. This could be attributed to the decline in quality of the public school system. Normally, each state sets forth an approved base curriculum that the home schoolteacher must follow. Although beyond these baselines, the parent may obviously add appropriate enriching activities.
Studies suggest that home schooled children fare better than their publicly schooled counterparts in all academic subjects (HSLDA, 2001). A large part of this is from the low teacher-student ratio and the ability of a parent to understand the child's learning patterns far better that a public school teacher that may only spend 5 hours a day with that particular child. In many cases the local home school association will hold events such as dances, study groups, etc. so the children are exposed to the same social interactions as public school children.
It is not surprising that the teachers' unions are pleased. In a system where tenure allows a sub-standard educator to continue to teach regardless of quality, is only makes sense that they would not welcome competition. Then add into the mix a bureaucracy that believes that the best way to solve a problem is to hand it over to the government, then it is no wonder that the homeschooling movement is under attack.
With all of the cries for civil liberties today, here the very rights of parents to parent are being eroded. I fail to understand the logic of fighting for the legal rights of terrorists, yet stripping the freedoms of children who would benefit by being taught by their parents. Of course any reasonable person would agree that some governmental overview is needed, even standardized testing, but to remove a child from an academically superior setting is ludicrous. Perhaps we should also hand our children over to the State thee times per day to ensure that they are receiving proper nutrition. You may laugh at this slippery slope argument, but I laughed at the thought of someone suing McDonalds for being obese. Until it happened.
Allowing government more control over innovations such as home schooling is a mistake. Unless you truly believe that a bureaucracy is better equipped to handle large systemic problems. Can you say FEMA? This is yet another reason why the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in so many areas, including education. It seems that too many of us worship the wise policy makers and distain the unique and powerful talents of the individuals.
