My sister sent me a note about a HSLDA petition, here is my reply:
Kari wrote:
>
> Are you aware of this petition?
>
> My daughter and her husband are planning to home-school their children.
> They are not satisfied with the education system of today. There is a
> movement pending in California making home-schooling illegal. Debbie
> has the education to get her credentials but she won't because of the
> methods used today. A lot of people home-school for religious reasons.
> Although it could be abused, it is mostly a very good thing. Her
> children are very intelligent. Just go to _http://www.Hslda.org_
> and sign the petition. They ask for your name
> and address, but won't use it for any sharing. They just need to make
> sure you are real people, not just someone providing fictitious names.
> Thanks,
>
Yes I'm aware of it. However, the group I am affiliated with, The HomeSchool Association of California, doesn't think there is any point in it. We have engaged the services of a large and prominent law firm, who have agreed to take the case pro-bono, to try and get the decision "depublished". While there is probably no harm in a petition, the truth is courts, rightly, do not listen to public opinion when making a decision, instead they rule on the law only. It is the opinion of many homeschoolers I've spoken to over the last few days that HSLDA is using this petition as a method of increasing their membership. I share that opinion after looking into their announcements. They lost me when they used James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" (should really be called Focus on Fascism if you ask me) program to get this petition going, I don't have any use at all for Dobson, I disagree with him and his organization on just about any issue you can name.
Petitions might be useful in the future if it gets that far, after all the legislature listens, supposedly, to public opinion when making new laws. Our firm contention is that we DO NOT need any new laws, ours is fine. Instead this decision is quite simply WRONG on the law. Any attempt to legislate new homeschooling laws in California would be a disaster because of the inordinate influence over the legislature by the Government Indoctrination Camp Guards Union, also known, falsely, as the "Teachers Union". That union is adamantly opposed to homeschooling because their paychecks are threatened when students leave the public schools.
In the meantime, homeschooling is NOT illegal in California, you can check out HSC's response here:
http://www.hsc.org/appellatedecision
HSLDA tends to be a bit sensationalist in their treatment of these issues, plus they emphasize the religious aspect of this, when in reality this is basic parental right we are talking about. Many of the homeschoolers I'm meeting here in the Bay Area are completely secular. HSC supports homeschoolers no matter what religion or non-religion they are and no matter what method they choose, from unschooling up through classical methods. HSLDA is not that inclusive. If anyone wants to help I'd encourage them to read up on the response by HSC and if desired you can make a donation to either:
The HomeSchool Association of California
or
California Homeschool Network
Both of these are inclusive statewide California organizations while HSLDA is a national "Christian" organization. Nothing wrong with Christians, I is one :-) It's just that this is not actually a religious issue.
Kari wrote:
>
> Are you aware of this petition?
>
> My daughter and her husband are planning to home-school their children.
> They are not satisfied with the education system of today. There is a
> movement pending in California making home-schooling illegal. Debbie
> has the education to get her credentials but she won't because of the
> methods used today. A lot of people home-school for religious reasons.
> Although it could be abused, it is mostly a very good thing. Her
> children are very intelligent. Just go to _http://www.Hslda.org_
>
> and address, but won't use it for any sharing. They just need to make
> sure you are real people, not just someone providing fictitious names.
> Thanks,
>
Yes I'm aware of it. However, the group I am affiliated with, The HomeSchool Association of California, doesn't think there is any point in it. We have engaged the services of a large and prominent law firm, who have agreed to take the case pro-bono, to try and get the decision "depublished". While there is probably no harm in a petition, the truth is courts, rightly, do not listen to public opinion when making a decision, instead they rule on the law only. It is the opinion of many homeschoolers I've spoken to over the last few days that HSLDA is using this petition as a method of increasing their membership. I share that opinion after looking into their announcements. They lost me when they used James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" (should really be called Focus on Fascism if you ask me) program to get this petition going, I don't have any use at all for Dobson, I disagree with him and his organization on just about any issue you can name.
Petitions might be useful in the future if it gets that far, after all the legislature listens, supposedly, to public opinion when making new laws. Our firm contention is that we DO NOT need any new laws, ours is fine. Instead this decision is quite simply WRONG on the law. Any attempt to legislate new homeschooling laws in California would be a disaster because of the inordinate influence over the legislature by the Government Indoctrination Camp Guards Union, also known, falsely, as the "Teachers Union". That union is adamantly opposed to homeschooling because their paychecks are threatened when students leave the public schools.
In the meantime, homeschooling is NOT illegal in California, you can check out HSC's response here:
http://www.hsc.org/appellatedecision
HSLDA tends to be a bit sensationalist in their treatment of these issues, plus they emphasize the religious aspect of this, when in reality this is basic parental right we are talking about. Many of the homeschoolers I'm meeting here in the Bay Area are completely secular. HSC supports homeschoolers no matter what religion or non-religion they are and no matter what method they choose, from unschooling up through classical methods. HSLDA is not that inclusive. If anyone wants to help I'd encourage them to read up on the response by HSC and if desired you can make a donation to either:
The HomeSchool Association of California
or
California Homeschool Network
Both of these are inclusive statewide California organizations while HSLDA is a national "Christian" organization. Nothing wrong with Christians, I is one :-) It's just that this is not actually a religious issue.
The only benefit I saw to the petition is that it gave people something to do rather than inundate the courts with angry letters. We had people here say some unkind things to a senator that introduced restrictive homeschool legislation here.
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth they thought they'd gain, I don't know.