To Homeschool or NOT!
‘The Reading Lesson’ by Ekvall Knut
Many families in California are waiting to see what the final decision will be about the guidelines for legal homeschooling in the state of California. The results could eventually very well affect homeschooling across the entire United States.
What began as a child welfare issue evolved into a hotly-contested argument over who is qualified to homeschool their child in California and who is not. With the teaching unions, especially the powerful California Teachers’ Association, violently opposed to the homeschooling concept, the courts decided that ONLY a parent with a teaching credential is qualified to homeschool. This effectively eliminates the majority of homeschoolers in the state of California. The decision has been met with great opposition and, in fact, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has said he will fight it.
Having the governor fighting the stricter regulations on homeschooling is ironic, as it was the passage of SB 777, “outlawing terms perceived as negative to ‘gays’”, which Gov. Swatzenegger signed into law earlier last year, that precipitated so many parents removing their children from public schools and deciding to homeschool instead.
As I stated in my post of Oct. 12, 2007, entitled “‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ Banned from California Schools”,
“Governor Arnold Swartzenegger has signed a law banning anything in schools that can be perceived as negative to ‘Gays’. Under the new law, ‘Mom’, ‘Dad’, ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ are not allowed.
“Boys and girls will now use the same bathrooms and locker rooms if they choose. The news report, (originally) published in WorldNetDaily, makes it clear that NO laws banning anything perceived as negative to ‘Conservative and Traditional values’ is in effect.”
Immediately after SB777 was signed into law, many Christian Conservatives made the decision to remove their children from public schools, as a way to avoid the policies they felt were in violation of their personal beliefs and standards. Several Christian parents have been interviewed as saying that they will be forced to move from California, and seek employment elsewhere, in order to keep their children out of California public schools.
This could be a landmark decision.
Brennan
