Our View: A victory for parents

A California Appeals Court has reversed its February decision that essentially had outlawed home-schooling. The court now says that, yes, indeed, home-schooling is legal in California, despite what it had ruled earlier. The decision is welcome news for home-schoolers and anyone who believes in fundamental concepts of freedom. There's little doubt the court reacted to political pressure, so kudos to the California public for getting sufficiently agitated over an injustice.

The original ruling was disturbing in its authoritarian language. The justices declared that "parents do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children." Fortunately, the state's political establishment — from Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger to Democratic state schools chief Jack O'Connell — criticized the ruling and affirmed the view that home-schooling is a legal educational choice in California.

Home-schooling is complicated by the fact that state law does not directly address the matter. California's education law requires children to be taught in public schools unless they meet a handful of exceptions, such as being taught in a private school or tutored at home by someone with a teaching certificate.

The state has generally allowed home-schooling parents to certify themselves as private schools and file private-school affidavits with the local school board. Although a past superintendent of public instruction tried to crack down on that practice, most officials have pretty much left home-schooling parents alone.

Unfortunately, the court had originally ruled that those who enroll their children in private schools but then actually teach them at home were in violation of truancy laws. The court had effectively undermined the most common way that Californians home-school their kids. The ruling had stemmed from a Children's Protective Services case against a Los Angeles home-schooling family accused of mistreating some of their children. The case was narrow, but the appellate court nonetheless made broad statements about home-schooling. We sense that the justices didn't realize that they had wandered into a minefield and were blindsided by the depth of anger at what they had done.

So the court took the unusual — but praiseworthy — course of reversing itself. The justices argued that their past conclusion was the only reasonable one, given state law and subsequent court decisions. But then they added, "More recent enactments demonstrate an apparent acceptance by the Legislature of the proposition that home-schooling is taking place in California, with home schools allowed as private schools."

There are worse things than a court that hears the roar of public opinion. But the court has not suddenly become any friend of freedom. The new ruling goes on to complain that California has too few regulations on home-schooling. We hardly see the need for more meddling. If anything, it's the government-run schools that pose the greatest danger to educational attainment in this state.

Nevertheless, the court did the right thing. At least now there's no question. Home-schooling is legal in California. Class dismissed.