Dear Friends,

In relation to the situation in California where a 3-judge panel has declared home schooling to be illegal:

What can we do?

HSLDA has a petition on their website, but because we live outside the USA or its possessions, we cannot sign.

A friend of mine in California says we can prayerfully consider doing this:

Send the following email to Tim Muscat who works in the California Dept of Justice. He will put our emails on the Attourney General’s desk. We have to send them to arrive by Monday morning 10 March Calif time, which is Tuesday morning NZ time (by 9am).

Address your email to:

tim.muscat@doj.ca.gov

and write the following:

Dear Mr. Muscat,

In the February 28, 2008, decision of the Second Appellate District Court of Los Angles regarding the legality of homeschooling in the state of California, we would request that a recommendation be made by the office of the Attorney General that this opinion be depublished.

Respectfully,
(Include your name, address and phone.)

Regards,
Craig & Barbara Smith
National Directors
Home Education Foundation
PO Box 9064
Palmerston North
New Zealand
Ph. +64 6 357-4399
Fax +64 6 357-4389
craig@hef.org.nz
https://hef.org.nz

Serving, promoting, defending and publishing for Christian and secular home educators in NZ and overseas since 1986.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KiwiSmithFamily/

http://www.familyintegrity.org.nz/

“Unless we press the crown rights of the King in every realm, we shall not retain them in any realm.” — Cornelius Van Til.

A California state appellate court ruled last week that it is illegal for parents in the Golden State to home school their children without the appropriate state teaching credentials. If this ruling stands, home-schooling parents could, in effect, become guilty of a criminal offense. Find out how you can oppose this chilling decision, which Dr. Dobson calls “an unprecedented assault” on parental rights – one that could have nationwide consequences. Joining Dr. Dobson are public policy expert Carrie Gordon Earll, Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Roy Hanson of Family Protection Ministries. You’ll also hear from a California home-schooling mom whose right to make educational decisions for her children is now under attack.
“At the heart of this case is a distrust of parents.” – Michael Farris

Here is the link to hear Dr Dobson on Focus on the Family interviewing 4 others including Michael Farris:

 http://listen.family.org/daily/A000000997.cfm

Dear Friends,

Here are some links describing a terrible situation in California: a three-judge appeals court has ruled that parents in that State do not have a California State Constitutional right to home educate. Since 1953 when the state’s compulsory school attendance law was last challenged, parents have been able to home school by declaring themselves to be a private school or by studying at home under the supervision of a private school. So these judges have simply decided this should no longer be allowed.

A Similar ruling given here would cause the NZ Correspondence School to shut down, for it would not allow non- state-credentialed parents to teach children.

 The ruling goes against many previous State Supreme Courts and US Supreme Court Decisions.

 So how can these judges do this and not just accept the previous rulings?  Because we now have judges who are activists, social engineers who have realised they can personally make radical changes in society by by-passing the normal democratic process, ignoring the voters, and just declaring , “What used to be OK is now illegal. “ 

Our MPs here in NZ are getting really good at this…ignoring what the majority clearly wants, they have created this monster called civil unions, they have decriminalised prostitution and they have criminalized parents who dare to correct their own children. They are turning NZ upside down: where it used to be the prostitutes and homosexuals who had to operate underground, now it is parents who have to go underground. 

It means that if we ever become a Republic, we need to be VERY, VERY careful who writes the constitution, for they will certainly give heaps of rights and freedoms to some and deny heaps of freedoms to others BASED ON SOME PHILOSOPHY. What will that philosophy be? I sure do not want Sue Bradford or Cindy Kiro or Helen Clark writing the constitution.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog.aspx?id=69203&blogid=329

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=69177 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/BAJDVF0F1.DTL&tsp=1

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8477915

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335808,00.html 

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58137

 Regards,

Craig & Barbara Smith 
National Directors 
Home Education Foundation 
PO Box 9064 
Palmerston North 
New Zealand 
Ph. +64 6 357-4399 
Fax +64 6 357-4389 
craig@hef.org.nz 
https://hef.org.nz 

Serving, promoting, defending and publishing for Christian and secular home educators in NZ and overseas since 1986.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KiwiSmithFamily/
http://www.familyintegrity.org.nz/ 

"Unless we press the crown rights of the King in every realm, we shall not retain them in any realm." -- Cornelius Van Til.

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/press/pressreleases/A000001094.cfm

March 6, 2008

Colorado Springs, Colo. — Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph., D., today denounced as “an all-out assault on the family” a California appellate court ruling that could criminalize home schooling in the Golden State.

The decision, from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles, stemmed from a single case involving charges of abuse brought against a home schooling couple. Home school advocates agree that the couple in question, based on the facts of the case, should have lost their ability to educate their children at home – but add that the court overreached in applying the restrictions to all home schooling families.

“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” Dobson said. “How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents’ criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values? The case before them 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 Focus on the Family would do whatever it could to get the ruling overturned and to restore the basic rights of parents in California to determine how their children are educated.

“This is an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children,” he said. “We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice. We will encourage them, by the hundreds of thousands, to make their voices heard on this matter. And we’re hopeful that, in the end, common sense and legal sanity will prevail.”

Dobson will address the court’s ruling on his daily radio broadcast Friday. Among his guests will be Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association. To listen, visit www.family.org.

(719) 548-4570