Our View: Home school ruling really 'outrageous'

The California Court of Appeal ruled Feb. 28 that it is illegal for parents without teaching credentials to home school their children. Violation of that law can lead to fines and criminal prosecution. The court even warned that such violations would subject parents to the juvenile court system." The threat is clear: Home-schooling families can end up in jail or even possibly lose custody of their children if they don't comply.

Some bloggers have argued that the decision does not imperil home-schooling, because the court only struck down these parents' attempt to enroll their kids in a private school while teaching them at home. They argue that the parents would have been OK had they followed the "statutorily prescribed" methods for home schooling.

Unfortunately, there are no clear statutes on this, and parents typically designate their home school as a private school to get around the unclear wording in the California education code. In our reading, the decision is extremely broad and imperils all home-schooling families. The governor grasped the seriousness of the issue when he called Friday for legislators to fix this "outrageous ruling."

The decision will be appealed and may not be implemented immediately. Parents, however, will soon be subject to the whims of their local school districts. In recent history, some California school districts have declared home-schooled students "truants" and used police powers to force them into school. Most districts have been more tolerant of home-schooling, but if this decision stands, home-schooling parents without teaching credentials will be forced underground. And districts have a strong financial incentive to discourage home-schooling, given that their funding is based on average daily attendance numbers.

"The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, in a statement. "It not only attacks traditional home-schooling, but also calls into question home-schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools."

The decision, written by Justice H. Walter Croskey, rejected a lower-court conclusion that parents have a constitutional right to educate their children at home. The justice made this point: "In obedience to the constitutional mandate to bring about a general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence, the Legislature, over the years, enacted a series of laws. A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as the means of protecting the public welfare."

It's hard to believe that such an utterance could come from an American court, given that the nation's Constitution is designed not to promote loyalty to the state or patriotism, but freedom.

Here we go again, back to the bad-old days of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the state Department of Education, under then-Superintendent Delaine Eastin, tried to outlaw home-schooling. After she left, Superintendent Jack O'Connell took a tolerant view of the matter.

On Thursday, O'Connell's press office said that the superintendent "continues to support parental choice when it comes to home-schooling." It might help calm the nerves of home-schooling parents if he sent a letter to school districts asking them to be equally respectful of that increasingly popular and successful education movement.

Home-schoolers have understandably been reluctant to encourage the Democratic-controlled Legislature, with its alliances with the California Teachers Association, to consider a legislative fix, but there's no reason not to pursue a "right to home-school" initiative. This is a fundamental freedom issue – not just a debate over education – that cannot be left unaddressed.