This week in Madison, Wisconsin, a high school student filed a federal lawsuit alleging school officials tried to suppress his constitutional right of religious expression. Asked to draw a landscape, the student added a cross and the words, “John 3:16. A sign of peace”. Though other students were allowed to draw “demonic” images, the art teacher insisted he remove the cross because it might offend other students. The student refused and was given a zero. The assistant principal told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students' rights. Yet in this same school, Buddha and Hindu figurines adorn a social studies classroom where the teacher teaches Hindu principles to students. Down the hall a picture of a Hindu goddess greets students near a drawing of a robed sorcerer.

No big deal, right? Just one student in one school.

How about we add this to the mix. This week the Vatican announced that Catholicism is no longer the world’s largest religious denomination, Islam is. As Catholic countries become more secular, like Spain or Italy, their birth rates fall. Cultures that turn child rearing over to the state, regardless of religious belief, see their birth rates decline often below replacement. To counter this demographic suicide secular countries such as France, Italy, and Russia actually pay citizens to have children.

The State of California has another idea on insuring an endless supply of properly trained citizens. Justice H. Walter Croskey ruled this February 28th that “parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children” adding “parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply.” Children can be homeschooled only if parents or home tutors hold a state credential for the student’s grade level. Never mind that homeschooled kids dramatically outperform public schooled kids on standardized test scores.

This is legal code for, “I’m ordering the kids out of Christian homes and into state schools where we can exclude Christian content.” You know, like they're doing so well in Madison, Wisconsin. The ruling will force tens of thousands of students back into government schools to learn, in the judges words, “loyalty to the state.”

And what will the result be? If we trust the empirical evidence to date: declining test scores and a long, secular suicide.

Recently the Second District Court of Appeal ruled that parents have no constitutional right to educate their children at home without state certification. In his written opinion, Justice H. Walter Croskey cited a long series of rulings indicating that the parental right to educate their children is not absolute under American constitutional law. But the court’s ruling raises the serious question of whether it is good public policy for the State of California to insist that all children be educated by people who have a teaching credential. The most lucid arguments favor the position that homeschooling should be at least a permissible option, possibly even encouraged by the state.

On one level, the conflict is about the state control and regulation of education.  At a deeper level, the homeschooling battle is one front in a much larger conflict over who controls the future, through access to children.

So what objections do critics have against homeschooling?

First, let’s dispose of the child abuse argument. This particular ruling came as a response to alleged child abuse in a homeschooling family.  Homeschool opponents claim that permitting homeschooling increases child abuse. But let’s be clear--child abuse is already illegal. Requiring home educating parents to have a teaching credential will do nothing to prevent child abuse. Besides, children get abused at school, as well as at home. A Congressional study estimates that around 9% of American public school children are subject to sexual misconduct by a school employee sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade.

Second objection: home schooling is educationally inadequate.  In reality, the vast majority of homeschooled children do better than public school attendees. When so many children educated in public schools are unable to pass the high school exit exam mandated by the State of California, the claim that homeschooling is inadequate is not a serious argument.

Third objection: Local schools are paid by the state on the basis of attendance. But the State of California is struggling financially. K-12 education is facing proposed budget cuts of $4.4 billion. (SD Union Tribune March 6, 2008).  It is reasonable to believe that homeschooling is a net benefit to the state budget. Homeschooling parents pay their taxes, but do not use the services of the public schools. If the ruling holds and these kids are forced back into public schools, the cost would be immense. This scenario would be budgetary and logistical nightmare, a bloodletting of state expenditures and good-will. Jack O’Connell, the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction– the equivalent of a department of education–now faces the potential crisis of dealing with tens of thousands of “truants.” O’Connell says he honestly doesn’t know what will happen next, adding that his department is reviewing the case, and “there is some angst in the field.”  Somehow, it hardly seems like a good use of scarce state resources to be barging in on families educating their children around the kitchen table, and dragging them off to over-crowded, under-performing, under-funded taxpayer supported schools.

Perhaps this California homeschool dispute represents a larger conflict over the future of society.  Whose children are these, anyway? One point of view is that children are gifts from God, given in trust to their parents who have the natural right to educate them.  Many homeschooling parents view themselves as stewards.

The competing point of view is that children belong to society, which grants parents the right to care for them.  The rights of parents are limited by the interests of the state. In a recent German homeschooling case, the European court held that parents may not refuse a state-provided education.

In his book A Nation of Bastards McGill University Professor Douglas Farrow argues that the competition for the control of children will only increase as children become more scarce.  Reproductive decisions tend to be correlated with political preferences: traditionalists tend to have more children than progressives. Traditionalists tend to favor parental education, while progressives tend to favor state education.  As the birthrate drops, the conflict over education can only become more intense.

This fight over homeschooling in California may be a harbinger of battles ahead.

An extended adolescence that celebrates self-gratification at the expense of marriage and family is one of the main causes of the world's self-effacing population decline, according to the new film, "Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family."

http://www.demographicwinter.com/index.html

AP Reports Graduation Rates a 'Catastrophe' in U.S. Cities

"Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday

The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.

"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance."

Associated Press

Activism Succeeds in Compelling Court of Appeal to Re-hear California Homeschooling Case

On March 25, the California Court of Appeal granted a motion for rehearing in the In re Rachel L. case—the controversial decision which purported to ban all homeschooling in that state unless the parents held a teaching license qualifying them to teach in public schools.

The automatic effect of granting this motion is that the prior opinion is vacated and is no longer binding on any one, including the parties in the case.

The Court of Appeal has solicited a number of public school establishment organizations to submit amicus briefs including the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, California Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and three California teacher unions. The court also granted permission to Sunland Christian School to file an amicus brief. The order also indicates that it will consider amicus applications from other groups.

Home School Legal Defense Association will seek permission to file such an amicus brief and will coordinate efforts with a number of organizations interesting in filing briefs to support the right of parents to homeschool their children in California.

“This is a great first step,” said Michael Farris, chairman of HSLDA. “We are very glad that this case will be reheard and that this opinion has been vacated, but there is no guarantee as to what the ultimate outcome will be. This case remains our top priority,” he added.

Home School Legal Defense Association

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/CA/200803261.asp

Homeschooling General Facts and Trends

Homeschooling may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States (at 7% to 12% per year). Home-based education is also growing around the world in many nations.

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Families engaged in home-based education are not dependent on public, tax-funded resources for their childrens' education. The finances associated with their homeschooling likely represent over $16 billion that taxpayers do not have to spend since these children are not in public schools

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A demographically wide variety of people homeschool – these are atheists, Christians, and Mormons; conservatives, libertarians, and liberals; low-, middle-, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with Ph.D.s, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas.

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The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests.

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Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.

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Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.

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Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

http://www.nheri.org/content/view/199/

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