Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California’s home schooling families.
Advocates for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands, home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in the nation.
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“Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court. “Parents who fail to [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.”
Update (03/07/08): It might not be as bad as it has been made out to be.
4 comments:
I agree that it's fasism, it's just not liberal fascism. Judge Walter-Croskey was appointed by the very right-leaning California Governor George Deukmejian and is a graduate of the very right wing USC Law School.
Anonymous, that Croskey was appointed by former Governor George Deukmajian is hardly evidence that he's a judicial conservative. President Reagan, after all, nominated two moderately liberal jurists in Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court, while the first President Bush nominated the very liberal David Souter.
I'd also challenge your assertion that USC Law is conservative, especially given the fact that Susan Estrich, who was the national campaign manager for Michael Dukakis in 1988, teaches there; as did Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine's new law school who often appears on Hugh Hewitt's radio show to argue legal issues from the left side of the political spectrum. Plus, if a law school's reputed political leanings is an indicator of how a judge who graduated from that school will decide things, how do you explain John Roberts, Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas? Last I heard, Harvard Law School (Roberts and Alito) and Yale Law School(Thomas) are pretty left-wing.
I was under the impression that Harvard and Yale Law Schools are extremely conservative, not to be confused with their liberal undergraduate colleges. As for USC, I think they take great pride in their conservative reputation. Chemerinksy I give you, but Estrich changed colors a while back as evidenced by her coming out in support of Schwarzenegger. I looked at a few of Judge Croskey's opinions, and they seem pretty mainstream conservative to me. In any case, I think this home school issue is an area where liberals and conservatives can come together. His ruling is way out of bounds.
Your impressions are pretty way off, Anonymous. And although I had already suspected that you were coming from the left side of the political spectrum, the fact that you think Estrich "changed colors" because she supports an indisputable RINO like Schwartzenegger pretty much confirms this suspicion.
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