Homeschooling Illegal? Part 2

You won't find it on CNN's site. Fox's either. Here's a link to a San Francisco site (of all places) I found on Drudge's web that reports on the academic typhoon ginning up in California. Here are a couple of quotes from the article. The first is from the ruling judge:

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."

Umm...isn't that anthem of most fascist nations? Do I want my child loyal to state and nation if they have become like Germany circa 1930-1945? Saudi Arabia today? Stalinist Russia? France (at any time)?

Here's another beauty. This'un comes not suprisingly from a spokesindividual for the California Teacher's Association (CTA):

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the CTA board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

Who determines the appropriate credentials? Oh, we're back to the state, again. Credentialing is not a bad thing. The problem with credentialing is that somebody has to determine what those credentials are, and when there are no checks and balances for the parents whose children are being taught against the credentialers, parents are at the mercy of a school system that is increasingly out of touch with the heartland.

The most abhorrent quote is saved for last from the lips of the executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles.

(Leslie) Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

That sounds like the definition of a home to me.

If home schooled children filled the prisons, outlaw the practice. When they continue to surpass the national averages in all academic disciplines and when the majority seem far more "adjusted" than the average sullen, baggy-trou'ed teenager, you might want to rethink outlawing something that seems to be benefitting society.