Schwarzenegger, U.S. representatives express their support for homeschooling

Sacramento, Calif., May 22, 2008 / 08:55 am

Homeschooling parents in California have been worried that the state may prevent them from educating their children following a February Superior Court ruling. The court has agreed to rehear the case, and on Monday, Gov. Schwarzenegger and California’s attorney general filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in favor of homeschooling.

Schwarzenegger and Brown’s brief explains that the state education code allows children in private, full-time day schools to be exempt from compulsory public school education.

A “private home school,” said the brief, can qualify as a private school under the code if it complies with state requirements for private schools. “Notably,” says the brief, “there is no requirement that the teachers in such schools have a California teaching credential, only that they be ‘persons capable of teaching.’”

The California education code, the officials said, “defines a private school as ‘a person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation offering or conducting private school instruction on the elementary or high school level.’”

Nineteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives added their voices to the debate by having the Liberty Counsel file an amicus brief on their behalf on Tuesday.
According to the Liberty Counsel, the Congressmen say they are “united in their concern for the effect that an unfavorable decision in California could have on national homeschooling laws, as well as the parental rights protected by such laws.”
 
On February 28, homeschoolers in California were blindsided by the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeals ruling that ruled that homeschooling parents without teaching credentials have no legal right to homeschool their children. The current rehearing of the case was granted on March 25.