By now you have probably heard about a recent court ruling from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles could ban home-schooling in California. Although many people in California home school their children, California law states that students must be enrolled in a public or private school, or can be taught at home by a credentialed tutor. The judges in this case have used this part of the law to order Phillip and Mary Long to send their two youngest children to a public or private school. The case states that one of the children has complained they were subjected to abuse by their parents. I don't know the details of the case but even if the allegations were justified, why would the judges make a ruling against all home schooling? The truth is that home schooling has been very successful for many people and if there is a problem with a home schooled child then the authorities can step in to correct the problem. Maybe it was appropriate in this case to send the children to a public or private school and maybe it wasn't. But the judges should never have ruled against the home schooling program.

My first thought was that this decision was about generating money for the schools. In California, the schools are paid based on daily attendance. The more kids you have at school, the more money the school gets. It seemed logical to assume that the schools were not getting paid for the home schooled children. But that is not the case. My sister who home schools her children told me that she had to go to the neighborhood school and register for home schooling. Once registered, the school gets paid just as if her kids attended school there. The fact is the public schools make more money with home schooled children than ones that attend school.

So what is the motivation behind the ruling? I now believe that answer lies with another section of the California law as stated in the decision.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism, and loyalty to the state..."

"Keeping children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' "cloistered" setting."

"if the State must satisfy its interest in secular education through the instrument of private schools, it has a proper interest in the manner in which those schools perform their secular educational function."

I believe the reason for the ruling is social indoctrination. All schools partake in indoctrination in one form or another and I think that for the most part that is accepted. But in America there is a cultural war going on between the feel-good, Marxist, Progressives, and the more traditional Libertarians, and Conservatives. The public schools are dominated by the Progressives who spend more time trying to pry children away from their parents values than they do in teaching them fundamental skills.

This is not about the quality of home schooled education. This is about making sure our children get the proper amount of exposure to the Progressives agenda of Marxism, anti-Americanism, and Gay/Transgender rights.

- Thomas Paine 2

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