California court drops charges against home schoolers
Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 7/22/2008 10:15:00 AM
In late February 2008, the California 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled that parents have no right to home school their children. Since then, pro-family attorneys have been preparing and delivering briefs in defense of a parents' rights to control the education of their children.
But Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, explains that the juvenile court handling the original case has recently dismissed it. "Apparently the state decided it either didn't want to pursue the parents or the court decided that they couldn't pursue the parents," he adds. "And so, essentially, there is no case left, no parties left for the appellate court to actually apply their decision to."
Hausknecht believes one of the parties should ask the appellate court to dismiss the appeal completely as being moot. "And that should happen as a matter of course," he notes. "But since this is California, no one quite knows for certain. So we can't say with a hundred percent certainty that this case will go away, but we're pretty sure it will."
Ideally, says the analyst, state lawmakers would enact a law protecting parents' right to educate their children as they see fit. He says it looks as if home schooling has won, but Hausknecht believes it could be just a ceasefire "because the uncertainties that convinced the court of appeals...to outlaw home schooling still exist under California law."
"And we hope that that law becomes solidified in the future rather than made more uncertain for families that home school," he adds.
But given the liberal nature of the California legislature, Hausknecht does not expect that to happen. He thinks it is a good sign, however, that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came out so strongly in support of home schooling.
