"Every California child deserves a quality education, and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," said California's Governor Schwarzenegger in response to the state appeals court ruling that significantly limited homeschooling. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education," he added. "This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts, and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."Despite the Governor's promise of legal support for homeschoolers, some parents like things the way they are. "We just want to leave it alone because it's good the way it is," said Loren Mavromati, a volunteer with the California Homeschool Network and homeschooling parent. "The law as it stands is working well in California."
Meanwhile, Schwarzenneger-appointed State Education Secretary David Long noted that "As a society, we recognize that a well-educated citizenry is our goal," and that the point of compulsory education is "to help ensure that." For now, according to a spokesman, Schwarzenegger is content to wait and see what happens in the courts (the ruling will almost certainly be appealed again). What happens if those appeals are denied is anybody's guess.
1. I think it's more accurate to say that the governator likes parents to remain in control of their children. I suspect that he doesn't know a heckuva lot about homeschooling, but he does know about parental rights and responsibilities.
This case is not about homeschooling, it's about parenting and who gets to decide what's best for children.
Posted at 12:14AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Sandyone