All other problems in California solved, it is time to go after the real criminals: concerned parents that would rather stay home to supervise the education of their children instead of entrusting them to a crumbling public education system.
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.
[From Criminalizing Home Schoolers - TIME]
Even if across the country from us, the issue strikes too close to home:
1. One of my best friends home schooled her children for as long as acceptable education choices were available for her family.
2. My mother taught me how to read at a very early age, and made sure I was studying on my own regardless of the weak public schools education in my neighborhood. My brother was luckier, since by the time he started school there was at least one private school available, but no escape for him: my mom was one of the teachers. By the time these schools opened I was too far in to benefit from private school, so I only spent a summer taking courses ahead at a private school elsewhere.
The sad thing is that this is probably a way to force home schooling parents to go through some kind of certification nightmare.
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