Spotlight on: Thanksgiving

Parent's Right to Homeschool Threatened
by Rexanne Mancini

I am neither an advocate of nor an enemy of homeschooling. I think if parents decide to homeschool their children, for whatever reason they see fit, more power to them.

I would not consider home schooling my children mainly because I wouldn’t have a clue how to, however, if I wanted to homeschool my children, you better believe that I would fight for that right.

A California judge, Justice Closky, has overruled a prior court ruling allowing parents to keep their children out of public (or private) schools if they choose to homeschool their kids. News source and full report on the case): Homeschool Story

This ruling essentially would force Phillip and Mary Long to send their children into the California public school system, which is, at best, a questionable source of education and a parent’s worse nightmare when it comes to potential violence and misguided peer influence. 

How such an injustice can occur is beyond me but it did and I’m angry and frightened for all our children and for parents across the country who are or would like to homeschool their children and for the parental rights we should have as citizens of the United States.  I do not believe that a government entity has my children’s best interests at heart more than I have and I would never abdicate my responsibility for their well being to anyone other than their father who I’m sure loves them as much as I do. I would trust very few people with the well-being of my children. I especially would never trust their well being and safety to a stranger, no matter under what umbrella the State of California wants to classify their social workers. While I’m sure these social workers believe they are doing the right thing, I’m not sure I trust their judgment.  This is still America, folks. This is not a country where we give up that Our ancestors fought like hell to preserve our liberties and which we continue to honor as a constitutional right and founding amendment. 

While our children’s education is vital and I know we would all like them to have the very best schooling available, we ultimately have the responsibility to educate our children as we see fit. My children attended private schools because my mother was generous enough to pay for that private education.  While I was reluctant to entrust my children to a “religious” school not necessarily aligned with my spiritual beliefs, I considered it a far better option than enrolling them in the public school system in the state of California and I would fight to the bone if anyone tried to force me to do otherwise. That is what is happening with this case of the State of California vs. The Longs. I shudder to imagine where this ruling could lead …

Others reading this newsletter must have opinions or feelings about this case. Please share your views, insight and experiences on our forum message boards. The topic of the month with is on this page: Homeschooling Threatened Please help enlighten us with your own views on this ruling. Thanks!

Copyright – 2000-2004 – Rexanne Mancini

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Rexanne Mancini is the mother of two daughters, Justice and Liberty. She is a novelist, freelance writer and maintains an extensive yet informal parenting and family web site, Rexanne.com – http://www.rexanne.com -Visit her site for good advice, award-winning Internet holiday pages and some humor to help you cope. Subscribe to her free newsletter, Rexanne’s Web Review, for a monthly dose of Rexanne: http://www.rexanne.com/rwr-archives.html

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