March 2008 — News
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Gov. Schwarzenegger Promises Reprieve to California Homeschoolers
HSLDA isn't the alone in condemning the decision. In a recent statement issued by the Office of the Governor late Friday, Gov. Schwarzenegger said, "Every California child deserves a quality education, and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts, and, if the courts don't protect parents' rights, then, as elected officials, we will."
HSLDA is also looking for a judicial solution to the issue. "HSLDA is not looking for a legislative solution at this point," Donnelly told THE Journal this weekend. "We believe that this issue can most properly be addressed in the courts. We expect that the court system will resolve this problem."
In order to accelerate judicial action, HSLDA has launched an online petition drive to "depublish" the opinion issued by the Court of Appeals. As of this writing, more than 160,000 electronic signatures had been collected for that petition.
"We are encouraging all homeschoolers and anyone who wants to support parental rights and educational freedom to sign a petition on our [Web site] that calls for the depublishing of the opinion," Donnelly said. "This is a proper procedure in [California] that would essentially confine the ruling of this case to the factual circumstances and prevent the case from being used as precedent in other courts in the State."
But not everyone thinks the ruling is a bad one. In an article in SF Gate Friday, Lloyd Porter of the California Teachers Association was quoted as saying, "We're happy. We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."
However, the wording in the Court of Appeals opinion, issued by Judge H. Walter Croskey, suggests that a teaching credential alone isn't enough. Credentialed teachers participate in homeschool programs through public school districts, and virtual schools also use credentialed teachers. The crux of this part of the issue is that homeschooled students participating in these programs are not seeing these credentialed teachers in person on a full-time basis. And therefore they're truant.
Said HSLDA's Donnelly: "This ruling requires that children attend a full-time day school or public school or be instructed by a certified teacher as a private tutor full-time.... [T]he logic of the ruling suggests that children enrolled in virtual or distance learning programs (either public or private) for the purpose of satisfying compulsory attendance laws would be truant."
