Calif. home schoolers advised to ignore court ruling ... for now

 

Conservative activist Randy Thomasson is urging a home-schooling family in California not to appeal a state appellate court ruling that declares home schooling illegal. At the same time, he is urging home-schooling families in the Golden State to ignore the ruling.

 

 

The controversial ruling held that parents who do not comply with school enrollment laws "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." The ruling overturns a lower-court decision that argued "parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home."

 
The case involves a family that had their children enrolled in a private home-schooling program called Sunland Christian School. Randy Thomasson with the Campaign for California Families says although it is bad ruling that may encourage home-schooling families to leave the state, they should not do so.
 
"This is a fire-breathing dragon, a roaring lion -- but you know what? It doesn't have to be paid attention to," Thomasson remarks. "This has no statewide application. The state law still says that a child who is enrolled in a full-time private school with the teacher being capable of teaching is enough -- and that is the definition of home schooling."
 
Thomasson cautions the ruling pertains to only one family and is not an order for all home-schooling families to obey. But he has obvious concerns for the family involved.
 
"Appealing [the ruling] could produce a statewide ruling that has bad and stronger effect," the family advocate suggests. "Not appealing could mean that these parents are the sacrificial lamb, but everyone else is protected. So it's going to be a hard decision for the parents -- and I hope that they have much better legal counsel at this point than even before."
 
Thomasson says "whether homeschooling is done above ground or underground, it's still the best thing for children."

exactly the right thing to do - ignore the judge's non-sense, get the power back to the parents.