Will California Home School Ruling Affect Christian Schools?

http://www.mercurynews.com/losgatos/ci_8486520

This ruling cannot be allowed to stand.  Educating your own children is a fundamental right, and not the domain of the state or federal government.  The evidence from home school families shows that the overwhelming majority of children who are educated at home, either in part, or over the course of their entire kindergarten through twelfth grade education, are at least as well prepared as their public school counterparts, in most cases, according to test scores, better prepared.  the test scores are higher, the failure rates much lower among homeschoolers, and that’s virtually the case in just about every state. 

There certainly are exceptions, as there are in virtually every other institution in society.  There are people keeping their kids at home and failing to educate them properly.  They are a far smaller proportion of the total home schooling population than those who fail to meet the standards in public education, but they are there.  However, they should be dealt with on a case by case basis, rather than by attempting to control the entire educational process. 

The other false assumption here is that a state-certified teacher is a guarantee against both a poor education or the abuse of a child.  If that were the case, then there should not be any failures in a public school classroom at all, since the teachers must be state certified.  The fact of the matter is that, proportionately, the vast majority of students educated at home exceed the minimum required scores on nationally normed achievement tests compared to those in public schools taught by state certified teachers.  And if state certification is a safeguard against abuse, then someone needs to explain to me why there has been such a rise in recent years in the number of cases where teachers, both male and female, have been caught in sexual relationships with their students.  Why isn’t state certification preventing the thousands of cases nationally, again, in proportion to cases of abuse among home schooled students, much higher among the state-certified crowd?

The fact of the matter is that, to become a doctor, you have to get an A average in courses in medical school, to become a lawyer, you must maintain an A average in law school and pass the bar exam, but a student with a C average can pass the simple certification test in most states and get a state teaching certificate.  If a sixth grader in most states couldn’t pass the teacher certification exam, they deserve to be held back. 

I suspect this has a lot more to do with philosophical influence than it does with educational quality.  Christian schools and homeschooling are a legitimate way for families to avoid the philosophical influences of secular humanism, atheism, and the anti-Christian bias of the public education system and enrollments of students in Christian schools, along with the numbers of families engaging in homeschooling, is soaring.  These are all kids who are out of the reach, and thus the control, of the secular humanists who run our educational system.  It is an ideological battle for the minds and hearts of our kids, it has been that for quite some time, and will continue to be.  This is one of those issues for which home school and Christian school families need to become activists, and let the politicians-Republican and Democrat alike, know that they mean business.  Impeachment proceedings need to be launched against this judge, to be removed from the bench.  A message needs to be sent. 

Most Christian schools and organizations have their own requirements for teacher qualifications, even if they don’t always hire state certified teachers, they do hire teachers with degrees in their field.  In many, if not most, cases, teachers in private Christian schools who are not state certified do a better job of presenting their subject material to their students because they often have career experience in their field and can teach practical applications of the subject.  Their experience gives them insights that an education course with a number on it cannot do.  While I do not believe this ruling will affect Christian schools to a great degree, I think the issue is one which Christian school parents and educators need to help in supporting home school families with regard to lobbying legislators and showing support.  This is an issue which should unite, and activate, people who want to keep their right to educational choice legal and valid.  Get involved, and this can be a barrier against further government intrusion into education.  It’s the proverbial camel nose under the tent.  Well, it’s time to slap that nose and get it out of there.