2010 California Election Forum

The war on homeschooling has scored a major victory.

Homeschoolers must be taught by a state credentialed teacher according to the liberal judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

“Parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” says Justice Walter Crockey, one of three judges who agreed to end homeschooling. The other two were P.J. Klein and J. Kitching.

He further said, “parents who fail to (comply with state law) may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program.”

This is a blatant attack on Christians raising their kids according to their own conscience. It's an affront to a free society respecting parental authority. Who do the children belong to—the parents or the state? It's basically secular humanism being imposed on people of faith.

In this case, the homeschooling parents were Christians and what was being taught in the public school was in conflict with their values and faith.

But the Court trashed their religious beliefs. The Court said their “sincerely held religious beliefs 'are' not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California compulsory public education law to them violates their First Amendment rights.”

The Court concluded, “such sparse representations are too easily asserted by any parent who wishes to homeschool his or her child.”

Who is for it? The liberal elite who feel only those with credentials are qualified to teach (I have secondary education credentials and know many teachers who are not qualified even with a credential!).

It's the bloated state education monopoly system that wants to control all kids.

It's the teachers' unions that are opposed to competition. A.J. Duffy, President of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) said, “What is best for a child is to be taught by a credentialed teacher.”

Nonsense. What's best for the child is to allow the parents to control their child's future. Not an indoctrination from the liberal educational establishment.

This ruling will be appealed to the California Supreme Court (yes, the ones about ready to rule on marriage).

As Christians we need to:

• Pray for protection of homeschooled kids and their parents.
• Pray the appeal will be successful, overruling this decision.
• Vote these judges out of office.
• Be careful on which judges we vote for in the upcoming June Primary. We will be endorsing the candidates.