It seems like the govt would have to prove that you are harming your child before they could rule that you cannot homeschool them.
This ruling exists however, because teachers unions seek full employment for teachers, and because of the gay lobby and the fascist/socialist big-brother types who want to make damn sure that they have their shot at brainwashing your kids into their agendas and to make sure to break the family bonds so that they can be taught to narc you off if you have unpure thoughts. California mandates that your 6 year old learn that being gay is normal and great. They mandate that if your 9 year old boy wants to start wearing a dress and going by the name of Sally, that he can, and that everyone else is brainwashed, coerced or forced at gunpoint to accept it.
Call it your right to free speech that is being violated when the gov't insists that they have 6 hours per day to give only their message to the kids.
Call it your right to be secure in your persons and your property to not have to report (or have your kids report) for indoctrination that you are being forced to pay for. Is that not liberty?
Schools in CA are unsafe with all the gang violence, do we not have the right to life?
We are no longer the land of the free. We do not know freedom. We are being told what to do by those who seek to control us all the time, and they need to be stopped.
Hasn’t Germany Learned Anything From Its History?
From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Sun, 2008-02-24 14:11
A quote from The Observer, 24 February 2008
Families are fleeing to the UK from Germany to escape a law introduced by Hitler that could lead to their children being taken into care if educated at home. One father, who arrived in Britain with his wife and five children last month, has told The Observer that his family had no choice after being warned that their children would be taken into foster care unless they enrolled them at local schools. Another, who fled in October, said he believed the 70-year-old law was creating hundreds of refugees and forcing families into hiding to protect their children.
Home-schooling has been illegal in Germany since it was outlawed in 1938. Hitler wanted the Nazi state to have complete control of young minds. […] Klaus Landahl, 41, who moved in January from the Black Forest in Germany to the Isle of Wight with his wife, Kathrin, 39, said they had no option but to leave their home, friends and belongings in order to educate their five children, aged between three and 12, legally and without fear. 'It feels like persecution,' he said. 'We had to get to safety to protect our family. We can never go back. If we do, our children will be removed, as the German government says they are the property of the state now.' […]
Jonathan Skeet, who is British-born, said that he, his wife and five children, aged between two and 11, were driven from Lüdenscheid after the authorities froze their bank account, removed money from it and confiscated their car. […] 'It was crippling,' he said. 'When we lived in Germany we wanted to live a very inconspicuous and quiet life. But instead we ended up in direct confrontation with a very powerful state.'
About 800 families are believed to educate their children at home illegally [in Germany]. Stephanie Edel, who runs the Schulbildung in Familieninitiative, a German organisation that aims to support those who educate at home, said that last year some 78 home-schooled children fled Germany with their parents. 'It is very dangerous to home-educate here,' she said. 'Home-educators have to learn to expect anything and have to be ready to leave overnight.' […]
Last year, in an extreme example, 15-year-old Melissa Busekros was removed from her family. […] Both domestic and EU courts have ruled in the German state's favour on numerous occasions in recent years.
More on this topic:
Hitler’s Ghost Haunts German Parents, 1 August 2005
Germany Imprisons Mum. Dad and Kids Flee to Austria, 12 September 2006
Homeschool Persecution in Germany, 25 September 2006
European Human Rights Court Upholds Nazi Ban on Homeschooling, 28 September 2006
2007 German Horror Tale, 28 February 2007
Mental Disorder, 28 February 2007
Melissa Heads for Home, 23 April 2007
The purpose of The Constitution (big T, big C)is to enumerate the powers of gov't, not the citizenry, and the rest is left up to states. Okey-dokey. But- do we sit around in our jammies waiting for someone to list all of our 'rights' before we get on with our lives, seeing as how none of us have the constitutional right to get in our cars and drive to McDonald's for a QP with cheese?
Are we supposed to believe that families must have the state's permission to direct and determine the education of their children (uhm.. does this count potty training?), or practice their religion, or limit television viewing and computer games, or eat Fruit Loops for breakfast (considering the state does have a vested interest in the health of its citizens)?
BTW- when were judges granted the power to invent laws? Can we get Judge Croskey to do something about menopause and cellulite?
Anyone want to take a ride down this slippery slope?
There is such a right in the Constitution. It is in the 9th Amendment, which acknowledges that there are rights "retained by the people" beyond those enumerated.
The 9th can and should be interpretted as a general protection of liberty where there are not conflicts with similar liberties for others. Interpretted more conservatively, it still implies that things that had been regarded as rights at the time of the founding should be treated as at least possibly being rights henceforth, calling for a high level of scrutiny for laws that limit such liberties.
Education of children certainly falls into that category.
The 10th Amendment forbids the government from interfering with the right to homeschool.
Where in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to get involved in the education of children in the first place?
Maybe i'm just missing it but, I thought The Constitution enumerated the limits of Govt' power. Anything not specifically granted to govt' there belongs to the citizenry exclusivly.
If there is now specific law granting oversight of homeschooling, then the Govt' has absolutley NO SAY WHAT-SO-EVER!
All of these folks in the govt' better start remembering that.........
"'What part of the U.S. Constitution forbids the government from interfering with the right to homeschool?'" First of all, the Constitution is the vehicle by which the PEOPLE confer power to the government. The Constitution doesn't have to forbig the gov't from interferring with the right to homeschool. The question is whether the people have given away their right to the government. The way you framed it makes you sound like a commie. The gov't doesn't have the power to do whatever the hell it wants unless it's been prohibited in the Constitution, that's some soviet union shit right there.
Look at the Ninth Amendment, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Thus, it doesn't have to be expressly written to exist. Because children were not forced to attend school at the time of this nation's founding, and therefore, people homeschooled their kids, it's ridiculous to suggest they can't continue to do what Americans have been doing for centuries.
It's a violation of one's most fundamental rights of freedom to be imprisoned for half of a waking day against one's will. The parent has a right to educate the child as s/he wants, so long as it is not harmful to the child (or public's) welfare.
(1) Who possesses that right, the child or the parents? It's not some separate right, btw, it's part of one's right to privacy, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so both. The parent's right is recognized in the court case you alluded to.
(2) Where in the U.S. Constitution (or, if you like, the California Constitution) can that right be found? EDITED: This would be more accurately phrased: "What part of the U.S. Constitution forbids the government from interfering with the right to homeschool?" WRONG WAY - What part of the CONSTITUTION GIVES THE GOV'T Authority to require compulsory education and forbid homeschooling?
(3) If there is a constitutional right to homeschool, why isn't there a constitutional right to gay marriage? There is a constitutional right to gay marriage. (hence why some want to amend it to ban gay marriage).
(4) Is there a corollary constitutional right to not educate your child if that is your choice?
How do you define educate? If one raises one's child to be a farmer w/o certain formal education, is that not educating? The only conception of not educating I could accept is leaving the kid in a crate all day like a dog - no socialization, not teaching to communicate, etc. Then that would be a case of neglect. Under the gov't powers over the general welfare, the gov't could take action if one neglects a child.
Those powers not specified in the Constitution are left to the States or to the people.
If California choses to educate their children in compulsory fishing school that is their business. If you live there and don't like it, work to change the law or move to Utah. DUH!
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