Hello fellow educators,

Today we will be talking about the recent, controversial decision on homeschooling by a California appellant judge and we will be hearing what our own Homeschooling consultant, Sarah Bennett, has to say about it. Welcome to podcast #11. Just a reminder that we are still sending out free copies of my book, Disciplining this Generation for a Digital World, to anyone that sends us an email. I will have the details at the end of the podcast.

Heritage Christian Schools has always had a very close relationship with the homeschool movement in our city and for the last four years, through the Online School, we have been serving home educators throughout BC. We register almost 300 homeschoolers as well as we enroll over 1100 DL home educated students. In just one month we will host the Christian Home Educator Convention here in Kelowna and hope to have close to 800 participants. One of the architects of our programs is Sarah Bennett and in just a minute we will talk with her about the California ruling and her experience with Heritage.

But first let me read for you an article from LifeSiteNews.com from March 5^th to help give a back ground of what has been happening in California:

Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."

The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of six and eighteen" to be in "public full-time day school," or a "private full-time day school" or "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught."

The two youngest of Phillip and Mary Long's eight children must be enrolled in a state approved school. Phillip Long told WorldNetDaily, "We just don't want them teaching our children. They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children's minds we don't feel they're ready for."

Mr. Long cited the state curriculum's inclusion of sex education, including its promotion of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle. "When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it's my job to teach them the correct way of thinking," he said.

The Los Angeles-area family was targeted by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services after one of the children reported "physical and emotional mistreatment by the children's father," according to documents submitted to the court.   

The 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles agreed with the trial court decision that had found, "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where they could interact with people outside the family".

"There are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting," the ruling said.

Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), said in a March 3 statement that the organization "strongly disputes this interpretation of California law" and is studying the decision.

The group called the ruling "a very bad decision" saying, "the opinion holds that homeschooling is not a legal option in California."

"If the opinion is followed, then California will have the most regressive law in the nation and homeschooling will be effectively banned, because the only legal way to homeschool will be for the parent to hold a teaching certificate. Parents should not have to attend a four-year college education program just to teach their own children."

In a statement made March 7th, responding to this ruling, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what’s best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will.”

Since then the head of schools in California has also come out with a statement assuring the home school community that they are not breaking the law.

Here is my discussion with Sarah:  Audio Only

I hope this brings some clarification to both the controversy in California and our own Homeschool programs. If you go back to our first podcast, I spoke our belief that the parent is the key person responsible for education their children. We need to continue to pray for our elected officials and judges that BC will continue to be the best place on planet earth to home school our kids.

If you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address.