California Home-Schooling Ruling Called ‘Assault on Family’

Here we go again.
It seems to Me that every time California does something it will trinkle to the other States.

(CNSNews.com) – A ruling by a California appeals court that parents “do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children” drew harsh criticism from religious conservatives on Friday, one of whom said the decision makes tens of thousands of parents into criminals – “the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets.”

“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, said in a press release responding to a three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which ruled on Feb. 28 that parents without teaching credentials cannot home-school their children.

“How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents as criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?” Dobson asked.

At the center of the case is a Southern California couple, Phillip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who home-schooled their children through a program at the Sunland Christian School in Sylmar. The family came to the attention of Los Angeles County social workers when one of the children claimed the father was physically abusive.

The workers then learned that all eight children in the family were home-schooled, and an attorney representing the two youngest children asked the Juvenile Dependency Court to order that they be enrolled in public or private school to protect their well-being.

Parents who fail to comply with school enrollment laws “may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey, whose decision was joined by the other two members of the panel.

But the case before the judges “involved one couple – the ruling should have been confined to that one couple, not used to punish an entire class of people, the vast majority of them religious conservatives,” Dobson said.

“The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which describes itself as “a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties.”

“It not only attacks traditional home-schooling, but also calls into question home- schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools,” Dacus noted in a press release Friday.

If the Feb. 28 decision is not reversed, “the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions” if they continue to live in California, he added.
Read the rest here.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200803/NAT20080310a.html

Florida schools must teach evolution, despite public opinion

The Florida State Board of Education now requires the explicit teaching of evolution in public science classes, with a last minute addition of the phrase “the scientific theory of” in an apparent but failed effort to pacify its opponents. The 4 to 3 vote allows for the first time the word “evolution” in the school standards, though the concept of descent with modification over millions of years was already being taught under different wording.

The Orlando Sentinel reported on February 20, 2008 that, after months of controversy over the new standards, opponents of the decision plan to petition the state Legislature to pass protections for teachers who offer alternative origins explanations in the classroom.

The Associated Press reported that evolution supporters believe the academic freedom proposal is a “wedge designed to open the door for injecting religious arguments into science studies,” suggesting the irony that “academic freedom” is only available within a limited sphere of minority opinion.

According to a recent poll by the St. Petersburg Times, almost two thirds of 702 registered voters surveyed in Florida were unconvinced of evolution.

Of those two thirds, “|29| percent said evolution is one of several valid theories. Another 16 percent said evolution is not backed up by enough evidence. And 19 percent said evolution is not valid because it is at odds with the Bible,” the report stated.

It is this body of constituents that proponents of evolutionary theory apparently fear most and have tried to discredit by casting the debate as “science versus faith” and “scientists versus everyone else.”

“People are going to have to be carried kicking and screaming over the threshold |to accept evolution|,” Florida State University professor Michael Ruse told the Times. He likened the fight over evolution to the civil rights movement.

The Florida decision will most likely have rippling effects in school districts around the country.