Plus, anything that pisses off James Dobson is a good idea on its face.
For years, the state of California has allowed parents to home school as long as they file papers to create a private school, hire a tutor with credentials or if their child participates in an independent study program through a credentialed school. In evaluating the Long case, however, Judge Croskey found that state law forbade any homeschooling that was not taught by a credentialed teacher and that what California had been allowing was, in his judicial opinion, illegal. In 1953, another appellate court ruled against home schooling parents who didn't want to adhere to California's compulsory education laws, which require kids between six and 18 to attend a credentialed school...."We weren't trying to change the law on home schooling," says Leslie Heimov of the Children's Law Center which represents the Long children involved in the case. "The law is accurate — it hasn't changed since the 1950s."
Criminalizing Home Schoolers
By Kristin Kloberdanz/Modesto
Parents of the approximately 200,000 home schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves, if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by mom and dad but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.
