Certification required for homeschooling in California

California's Court of Appeal ruled this past week that home-schooling parents are required to have state certification to continue homeschooling.

This is, despite the fact that home-schooled students consistently complete the ACT or SAT higher than privately AND publicly schooled students, forcing Parent-educators to pay thousands of dollars to receive certification or else put their kids in a school system in which they place no trust.

There was a reason for the Compulsory Public Education Act when it was first founded, because the Public School System (which was originally founded by Christians) was the only reliable way to school children. Sure, there were a few private schools, but they were far too expensive to send children to. Now, since Just before I entered 6th grade, Home-schooling was recognized by nearly every state (excepting, obviously, California) as a competent method of educating children, due to the test grades of people who had home-schooled without the government's consent being higher than the public school's.

The decision of the court should have stuck to the evidence at hand, being the one single case of a child who had been abused by one parent without the knowledge or consent of the other parent. Because of one single case, the court has decided the throw out the baby, bathwater, tub, and bathroom all in one foul swoop. This is not only forcing students who have home-schooled their entire life to drop back an untold number of grades, but forcing the parents to do all of the following if they decide to disagree with the state:

Pay a fine of up to $3000 ($1000 for Education Code Section 48293 and $2000 for Penal Code Section 272)

Go to jail for a time not to exceed one year (Penal Code Section 272)

Child to be removed from what the state of California considers an unsafe environment (because it is unsafe to not educate children exactly how the state says to, apparently, therefore, the parents lose their children)

I say all this is the court overstepping its bounds and the state of California trying to put a leash on the next generation, instead of allowing them to make new discoveries.

I know this much, I will never go to California if this decision is not amended or removed, and if I had lived there, I would move out immediately.

You say the court overstepped there boundaries by forcing parents who are working as teachers to obtain a teaching license. But the fact is that it is up to the state to set education requirements and it can do so in part of police powers to regulate things in-order for the public good.

Also according the HSLDA The Home School Legal Defense Association says california's regulation on home schooling in California as low.

http://www.hslda.org...

however, the HSLDA is busy, by their own statement, circulating a petition to reverse a civil ruling from a criminal case. The case, in any other situation, would not have effected homeschooling families. In fact, there are markedly less cases of child abuse in home-schooling families than in public school families. However, instead of the court relegating their ruling to a criminal case, they decided to do what a civil court and the legislative branch are required to do. In fact, they overruled amendments to the Compulsory Education laws (made to accommodate home-schoolers) that were voted into the state constitution by the population of California. There are checks and balances in the American government and the governments of its states which are supposed to prohibit such rulings from being made. The rule of precedence in the government is constantly used to protect rights that belong to people (an example is that in another state, a Deaf girl's mother sued a public school to provide transcription services for her daughter, instead of interpreting services. Now parents of deaf students can point to that case and say that a school in that state is illegal if it refuses to provide transcription (http://www.yourcaptioner.com...) (Solorzano V Glendora High).

California's legislative branch approved the amendment after cases suing for homeschooling rights succeeded and extensive studies showed that the drop out rate was lower and the ACT/SAT score average was higher among Home-schooled students.

The California courts overstepped their bounds because:

1. The case was a criminal case, not requiring civil repercussions.
2. The case did not show a growing trend of any sort to support that home-schooling is a dangerous environment.
3. There was established precedence that was in defense of Home-schooling rights.

Ok, I guess he dropped out of the debate, or he has no answer to my last round. Anywho, I guess he will have to wrap it up for us, since I have nothing new to add