Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 6/5/2008
The response of California's teachers' union to pro-family attempts to protect home schooling in that state has outraged one attorney who is working on the case.
The response of California's teachers' union to pro-family attempts to protect home schooling in that state has outraged one attorney who is working on the case.
Numerous organizations on both sides of the issue have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal of a California court's ruling that parents have no right to home school their children. But one reaction in particular caught the attention of pro-family attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute.
"The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools -- even though parents object," the attorney explains.
Dacus did a double-take when he read one specific charge made by the teachers' union. "In their brief, the teachers' union said that to allow parents to be able to home school without being credentialed teachers could result in 'educational anarchy,'" he shares.
That argument, he says, discounts reality. "This is ignoring the facts that home schooling is widespread in California," he exclaims. "Over 200,000 children are being home schooled right now in California -- and they score higher academically than not only public school children, but also children in traditional private schools. If there's anarchy, the anarchy is in public schools."
Both the state superintendent of public instruction and the California Department of Education have filed briefs supporting the legality of home schooling. A brief filed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown argues that home schooling is perfectly legal under California law and states that the practice "has a long and positive history in California and across the nation." The California Court of Appeal intends to hear oral arguments in the case sometime this month.
"The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools -- even though parents object," the attorney explains.
Dacus did a double-take when he read one specific charge made by the teachers' union. "In their brief, the teachers' union said that to allow parents to be able to home school without being credentialed teachers could result in 'educational anarchy,'" he shares.
That argument, he says, discounts reality. "This is ignoring the facts that home schooling is widespread in California," he exclaims. "Over 200,000 children are being home schooled right now in California -- and they score higher academically than not only public school children, but also children in traditional private schools. If there's anarchy, the anarchy is in public schools."
Both the state superintendent of public instruction and the California Department of Education have filed briefs supporting the legality of home schooling. A brief filed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown argues that home schooling is perfectly legal under California law and states that the practice "has a long and positive history in California and across the nation." The California Court of Appeal intends to hear oral arguments in the case sometime this month.
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