California News

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59979

California homeschooling gets 2nd chance
Court vacates ban, grants rehearing in controversial case

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Posted: March 26, 2008
10:42 pm Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


A California court order that essentially banned homeschooling in the state has been vacated, and the judges who issued the ruling will hear further arguments on the status of parents who want to teach their own children.

WND broke the story in February of an appeals court order in Los Angeles against the family of Phillip and Mary Long.

The Longs say they have homeschooled because of an anti-Christian bias in public schools. The ruling stemmed from a juvenile proceeding that already had been closed by the court when court-appointed attorneys for their children appealed in an attempt to ban homeschooling. The ruling from Appeals Court Judge H. Walt Croskey granted the attorneys' wishes.

The court ruling said: "We find no reason to strike down the Legislature's evaluation of what constitutes an adequate education scheme sufficient to promote the 'general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence. … We agree … 'the educational program of the State of California was designed to promote the general welfare of all the people and was not designed to accommodate the personal ideas of any individual in the field of education.'"

The appeals ruling said California law requires "persons between the ages of six and 18" to be in school, "the public full-time day school," with exemptions being allowed for those in a "private full-time day school" or those "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught."

The decision sent shock waves through the homeschooling community across the nation, and a variety of groups jumped into action, including the Home School Legal Defense Association, which worked with other groups on a petition for rehearing before the same court.

For the full article, go to the above webpage