In a case that provoked outrage across the country, lawyers for the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services earlier this year invoked the state's truancy laws to place two homeschooled children into public schools after reports of abuse by their father. The California Teachers Association then accepted the court's invitation to take part in the case, arguing that "parents do not have an unfettered right to dictate the terms of their children's education." The court agreed, at least at first, broadening a case about the well-being of two children into an overreaching statement about the adequacy of homeschool environments across the state.
Fortunately, the right to homeschool has been reaffirmed. I've written about this previously.
I wonder what percentage of "the families of the 166,000 children who are homeschooled in California" actually got in touch with their reps?
ReplyDeleteHaving gotten to know, a bit, a couple of legislators I'm assured that public pressure really works. E-mail's not that effective, phone calls more so and an individually-composed letter that's reasonably adult in tone, the most effective.
I'd really like to know the scale of that "outrage".