[Alex Linder]

Best reader comments:

This is all about money. California schools get paid by attendance and enrollment. Home schooling threatens that. So the judges appointed by Democrats beholden to public employee unions rule that they must attend school. Shocking. As for the "there's totalitarianism at religious schools, too" please explain to me how you can suffer under a totalitarian ruling at a school attended on a voluntary basis. Bay Area liberals think fascist = anything I don't like.


Many public school advocates on this board display poor grammar and spelling. What does that tell me? On the other hand, the finalists of spelling and geography bees are mostly home schoolers. Just saying...


This is ridiculous. If the State of California is going to force people to send their kids to public school or pay out the nose for private instruction, then they need to ensure that ALL public schools are safe & provide a high-quality education. Gawd knows we pay high enough taxes that we should be able to afford it. What if you live in a city like LA, SF, Berkeley, or Oakland & your child gets assigned to a crappy school, & you can't AFFORD private school or a freaking "accredited" private tutor? We left Berkeley & moved to Guerneville (which has an excellent elementary school) for this reason. Also, what if -- like many parents -- you simply don't want your child exposed to junk-culture & junk-food, like Bratz Dolls, Hannah Montana, foul-mouthed & overly-sexed pop music, & neon-colored food that's advertised as nutritious but is really just glorified candy. I guess now that parents can only opt out of this if they're wealthy enough to afford a 20K/yr Waldorf education.

[the comments i'm not posting slightly outweigh the pro-HS posters. Bay Area liberals are and always have been totalitarian fundamentalists who think everyone but them is a religious wacko. They not only see nothing wrong with forcing others to subsidize views they don't believe in (Jefferson's definition of tyranny), they think they should be taxed again and have their children forcibly submitted to the pro-queer teachings of their sick and moribund cult.]

The L.A. Law Center representative stated that this wasn't an issue (for them) of the quality of education but that they wanted someone (the State) to watch out for the children, i.e. the underlying message is: Parents are not to be trusted OR the State can raise your kids better than you can. I often regret that I haven't had kids of my own, but more and more, I am now relieved that I don't because the State insidiously, more and more, uses the fact they can control you through your children. On an educational front, it seems obvious that the agenda of our educational system is less about education and more about turning children into little brainwashed cogs in the wheel (corporate funding of educational programs in the public school system is just the tip of the iceberg).


Somebody needs a lesson in reality. This appeals court has just made California a State that is undesirable for freedom. We left California in the 90's because schools were bad. They are worse now. We took the kids to a safe place to be brought up and homeschooled. All four of them. Three now have diplomas and are in school and trade jobs and they did not have any problems with bullying, drugs and sexual abuse which is RAMPANT in California schools. We have one more who is 14 and we were heading to move back this summer with one more we are finishing homeschool and I guess not, huh? We will stay until he finishes here...By the way, all of our kids scored in the top 5% on SAT's...we are going to stay in Hawaii now until Arnold can straighten this out ... this is most disturbing and totally disgusting ruling...what happen to freedom in America?

[is there any group of people more self-righteous, intolerant and dogmatic than Bay Area liberals?]


It is absolutely understandable people want their children home-schooled when public schools indoctrinate kids in homosexual and marxist activities. What is happening now will only push the most productive and patriotic Americans to sane states and out of this insane communist cesspool.


166,000 X 10,000 per kid = 1.66 Billion the State will have to pay. Do these idiot Judges ever think? Besides 99% of the home school kids won't turn out like the thugs being made in the public schools. BTW Do school districts drug test Public School Teachers?


A fine gift to the teacher's unions and the various failed public school disstricts. Part of the socialist-fascism dream is to get to the children early so that they can begin a long and complete indoctrination process. How dare parents think they have a right to teach their children without the benefit of "credentials." Why the next thing you know they'll think they have a right to instill moral values in their children, and then what? Oh my, they might grow up to be independent thinkers, well adjusted adults, and have a real love of lifetime learning. Well the courts will put a stop to that nonsense. The clowns posting on this site who have spewed religious bigotry and have passed ingnorant judgement on homeschoolers and the homeschooled will cheer on the march towards socialists utopian dreams, mostly because they are products of the public schools have been told by their betters what is best.


Home schooled students also do not make very good soldiers. Too self motivated to take orders. Need to have it beaten into you in high school by your peers and some coaches to fit in with the rest.


What is incredible is the majority opinion that "Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children" and that "Noncompliance could lead to a criminal complaint against the parents." Wow!! If minimal standards are at issue, devise a test and let qualified parents test out. Have a test that allows kids to test out. Allow kids above the age of 12 to opt out and have the schools monitor those kids who are in schools against their parents' wishes. So many US public schools are so bad as to warrant lawsuits on substandard schooling, i.e. noncompliance of something more important: their actual education. On a personal level, I have a PhD in a real field and I tutor my kids in online math courses 4-5 years higher than their grade level and reading at 3-6 years above their grade. For us, would forcible public schooling represent a violation of their civil and consitutional rights? After all, their welfare, liberty, and life would each be made worse...


Folks, in the end its a money issue. The more catatonic butts in the seats in of the schools, the more money each school receives. Any CTA member who states otherwise is blowing smoke up your backside.



i was edgercated real dam goode in homscool. it was my funmental rite. mom wood beet me reaul goode for jesus if i dint anser her queshchuns like she liked. now i am's smart (as is my funmental rite)


I'm disgusted at the out and out BIGOTRY on these comments by the anti-religious crowd. Seriously, you are no better than the Klan. The ultra fundamentalists could learn a thing or two about smug self-righteousness and arrogance from the likes of you. i'm not religious, but I also don't think that I am the be all and end all of existence either. I believe there are things that are beyond our comprehension as humans. I am not ARROGANT enough to believe that if I can't make sense of it, it doesn't exist. Make no mistake, you DO believe in God... only you think that you're it! Anyway... My guess is that most homeschooling types will simply move out of state, as many more freedom loving people are doing every year. I was raised in a very good public school system in a fairly non-violent suburban community. I agree with the people who raised issues about kids needing other kids to be around. But the public school system has its own set of "monolithic" values, not just homeschools.