A couple of things
7 03 2008I’m going to make a prediction, and when it comes true, I expect all the imbeciles who are ranting gloom and doom (and completely misinterpreting a straight forward court document) to come here and personally apologize to me - I predict that homeschooling will continue unabated in California, today, tomorrow, next week, next year. Absolutely nothing will change, no parents will be required to obtain certification, the sun will rise and set every day - except maybe there will FINALLY be a clarification of laws on the part of all of those too stupid to have understood that their “rights” haven’t been violated, that homeschooling was never “legal”, and certainly wasn’t legal under the “register with an umbrella school” notion.
Frugal Friday is up. Check it out, and the archives.
Thank you, Daryl, for finding the spam I was too irritated to catch, and Akismet let through.
And lastly, if you’re coming here from The Internet Infidel’s link - I’m not an atheist. Why do people assume that? The default for “not Christian” isn’t Atheist. I’ve covered this numerous times.
re: spam. Go to Options -> Discussion and there’s a bunch of options there you can tweak to stop a whole load of spam before it even gets to Akismet.
Also, be sure to check you spam folder (wherever Akismet keep it) as it has been known for false positives.
Nice new website Doc. Wish you were back on HT to clarify the CA/homeschool issue. No one cuts thru the drama queen prattle quite like you do.
Holy hell, Doc.
Here in Iowa people are going in rounds about that stupid CA case. They freaking beat their kids, people. Why does this case have to be in all the headlines? Why can’t HSLDA exclude any case involving physical violence? Why hold them up as homeschoolers that need public scrutiny? GAH.
Seriously beating my head against a wall here. I can’t get people to actually read the documents for the case (they claim its to confusing in leagalese?). (thunp thump thump).
I tried (in vain) to post about it - just asked them to read the ruling themselves - on my local email loop - which is about 99% fundy - but was met with the following responses “I don’t have to read the case, I trust HSLDA” or “It was published in the newspaper, do you know more than they do?” and my favorite “California is full of whacko government who want to turn all grade schoolers in gays, and this is just another way to force their agenda”
Dude, Doc, I’d be leaving that loop.. Holy hell is right..
I’ve got Ellie trying to convince everyone that the ruling DID state they are ALL in trouble.
Ellie, of all people.
Sheesh
toni
//Doc, I’d be leaving that loop.. //
I agree. It’s why I’m loopless.
That’s what I did too! i posted the links to the actual ruling and I can’t get them to understand that it is based on current laws and is not setting precedent. They said they trust HSLDA too. AND all the news sources say so it must be true.
What gets me? These are the same yahoos that are usually whining about the liberal biased media lying to us all the time. So my question, why are they reporting it like this? What is to be gained exactly?
I don’t know Doc.
Expecting some to differentiate between dogma and spirituality may be a waste of energy but crusade on and best of luck!
I’m on a bunch of those yahoo group things, homeschooling and farm related; I visit message boards, and I get news feeds from several sources. I’ve received, or viewed, no less than 2500 different frantic messages about how “California Courts Made Homeschooling Illegal”
The stupid people, I get. The lawyers from HSLDA? WTF. And all those ridiculous news stories? Please note that the same imbeciles who don’t trust our “liberal government” or our “biased news sources” are quoting any and all reports (all misrepresenting the ruling).
We can thank World Net Daily, because that’s where these other news sources are getting THEIR feed. Well, that and the scores of stupid people who are calling and giving them the “scoop”.
It’s a trainwreck between “hive mind” and “herd mentality”.
Should I assume that all the law abiding conservatives in California stopped homeschooling today, since, you know, it’s ILLEGAL?
So fine, if you hate gays and think the government is out to get you, or you’re just paranoie and/or stupid, please, pull your kids out of school, or go underground with your schooling choice, or move out of the state, country, continent, whatever. And just do this one little thing for me:
SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Doc, I hate to report that I heard this story this afternoon on nationally broadcast car radio, first on the Sean Hannity Show and then [sucking air] on my beloved NPR! See more here.
The lawyers from HSLDA? Think about it! The homeschoolers are scared, and this is an easy membership drive for them. “Make sure your membership is up to date, just in case…”
And the gay thing came up as justifying the Long family and others like them, including “Heather Has Two Mommies.”
- The lawyers from HSLDA? Think about it! The homeschoolers are scared, and this is an easy membership drive for them. “Make sure your membership is up to date, just in case… -
I’m laughing. Yes!
Hey, thanks for the link to my Frugal Friday - my itty bitty pet project of late.
OK, call me slow and stupid, but I put off updating my bloglines to your new site and then forgot about it. Have been wondering why you had no new posts! Duh.
I’ve had the same problem with not Christian must mean atheist. What is with that?
Glad to have found you again. Noticed I’m no longer worthy of your blogroll. **sniffle sniffle** Not that I’m really a blogger or anything. LOL!
Oooooh, I guess I better update MY blogroll! I thought you were on it. I guess I should try to have my blogroll more closely match my bloglines, but my bloglines list is just sooooo long.
Actually, I cleaned it up this morning - I couldn’t get your site to load and thought it was gone! I’ll put you back on.
If all those people show up to apologise, you’re going to need an awful lot of tea and cookies on hand. Or will you just shake their hand and turn them away?
My mom called me last night. I told her as of March 14th, we’re leaving public school for homeschooling. She brought up the California thing. Got the story off Faux News or MSNBC.
The talking heads are as bad as the kooks at WorldNutDaily and the Fundy boards. I told her I read the case and, frankly, it was about child abuse not homeschooling and how the parents were trying to make up “rights” that didn’t exist so they could continue to abuse their children in secret.
Don’t get yer knickers in a twist.
California also made smoking pot and crack illegal. We’ve outlawed gang membership and Botox parties.
We’ve made all sorts of laws but no one enforces them anyhow.
Botox parties? Now I’m really scared.
Does anyone (sane) know what the law is governing private schools in CA? So I don’t have to go read statutes and go bonkers trying to sort it out. Does a private school have to have only certified or credentialed teachers? I’m thinking not but that seems to be the fear-mongering line so I wondered.
Nance
So, if I had just read the next post here, I would have had my answer:
“Nowhere does the ruling state that ALL teaching in California must be done by a certified teacher. All a family has to do is declare their home a private school.”
Thanks. That’s what I wanted to know.
Nance
Private schools don’t have to have credentialed teachers; that’s why lots of people homeschool in CA by registering as private schools. I don’t live there now, but my family lives there and I hope to move back within a few years, so I’m following this closely (I have two young sons, and I intend to homeschool them).
I did go read the ruling (http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B192878.PDF), and the judge went on and on about homeschooling. In particular, he said that clearly (citing a previous ruling) the legislature never intended for parents to be able to use the private school exemption to teach children in their homes without credentials. Here’s the quote that scares me:
“Additionally, the Turner court rejected, and noted that courts in other states had also rejected, the notion that parents instructing their children at home come within the private full-time day school exemption in then-section 6624 (now section 48222). The court stated that a simple reading of the statutes governing private schools and home instruction by private tutors shows the legislature intended to distinguish the two, for if a private school includes a parent or private tutor instructing a child at home, there would be no purpose in writing separate legislation for private instruction at home.”
I haven’t been to law school, but it looks like this judge thinks that using the private school exemption to teach kids at home without a credential is not legal. This probably also affects the “public school at home” virtual charters. The question is will school officials take this and go after families that homeschool under the private school exemption? Can they? I don’t know the answer to that.
Even if the law hasn’t been enforced, I’d be worried about selective enforcement if you manage to piss off your local school district or if you have meddling family that doesn’t support homeschooling. From my reading of this, lots of families that homeschool through the private school exemption are on shaky legal ground.
I just posted this in the next thread and will use it to make my own prediction. I predict there is a booming business in CA in “educational consultants” or whatever the hell they end up calling themselves — former umbrella school owners now looking for a way to make a living and hsers who feel they need the oversight of these folks hiring them.
Nance
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Also, do you or do you not agree that parents should be free to make whatever academic choices fit their family unless there is some evidence that the academic choice is educationally insufficient?
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So if the parents want their child to have the benefits of the curriculum and guidance of an umbrella school, what’s to stop them?
They could file their own R4, establish that their home is the private school their child is enrolled in, and hire the services of the umbrella school. Also. In addition. Like they would hire any other outside instructor.
If you have to handle the paperwork in a slightly different way it doesn’t necessarily mean anyone’s “academic choices” have been limited.
Nance
I just noticed that Doc replied to the quote I pasted above - sorry for cluttering another comments thread with it.
I disagree with you, though. I think the judge is clearly stating that umbrella schools AND establishing your home as a private school are not (and have never been) legal ways to meet the compulsory ed laws in California.
I had to laugh when I read your prediction. I was thinking the same thing. Homeschooling will march on. All this door-locking and window-peering and call-screening and closet-shivering is just indulgent drama. Thanks for this post.
NHELD has published a bulletin #60 with a very different legal analysis and reaction than what HSLDA is giving. The link to the bulletin, dated 3/08/08, is here.
http://www.nheld.com/BTN60.htm
One quote:
” In recent days, there have been a rash of articles in the news proclaiming that a California court declared that parents no longer have a right to homeschool in that state. We caution everyone to go behind the headlines and to read for themselves the entire decision of the court in question. News outlets need to obtain readers and, quite often, provide only part of the story, or, provide their interpretation of the facts. Before believing everything that you read, try to go to the original source of the story, and read the original documents involved. Then, you can ascertain for yourself what the truth is.”