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March 2008. California ruling that homes choolers need credential. Click here.

School Vouchers and Home Schooling

Sapping the strength of public education

Reports on homeschooling are below. Click here.

School Vouchers

The Theocratic Agenda Is Heading for a Statehouse Near You

Well-coordinated "faith-based" initiatives and anti-evolution lobbying in state capitols from New Jersey to Colorado signal a stealth national strategy by Religious Right organizations.

Rob Boston, Church and State (American United for the Separation of Chruch and State), March 10, 2007.

Utah seems like a strange state to experiment with voucher subsidies for religious and other private schools.

Politically and culturally, the Beehive State is dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Seventy percent of the state's residents belong to the church. Most Mormons are content to send their children to public schools, where they are often released during the school day for religious instruction offsite. There aren't even many private schools in Utah. Continue

Bush Proposes Adding Private School Vouchers to 'No Child' Law

By Amit R. Paley, The Washington Post, January 25, 2007

The Bush administration yesterday unveiled an education plan that would allow poor students at chronically failing public schools to use federal vouchers to attend private and religious schools, angering Democrats who vowed to fight the measure.

The private school vouchers, which on average would be worth $4,000, were among a series of proposals presented yesterday that President Bush hopes will be included in the reauthorization of his signature education initiative, No Child Left Behind.

In a conference call with reporters, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the initiatives were necessary to help students in the nation's 1,800 most persistently under-performing schools. Continue.

Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study

By Diana Jean Schemo, The New York Times, July 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 14 - The Education Department reported on Friday that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private school counterparts fared better.

The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores in 2003 from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools, found that fourth graders attending public school did significantly better in math than comparable fourth graders in private schools. Additionally, it found that students in conservative Christian schools lagged significantly behind their counterparts in public schools on eighth-grade math. Continue

Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling

N a t i o n a l A s s e s s m e n t o f E d u c a t i o n a l P r o g r e s s

U.S. Department of Education NCES 2006-461

The comparison that found that public school students perform nearly as well as private school students -- and that students at private Christian schools do signficantly worse on 8th grade math. Click here for the report, a PDF document.

Education: School choice advances under the banner of tax credits

by Anthony Mator, World Magazine, May 20, 2006

Reformers in some states have moved from pushing vouchers to emphasizing educational tax credits, which seem more palatable to both liberals (because no money is taken from public-school coffers) and conservatives (because private schools are less vulnerable to state regulation than if they become dependent on voucher payments). Click here for the report

Don't Extend the Temporary Emergency School Voucher Program!

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

The federally-funded school voucher program was supposed to be a one-time program in response to Hurricane Katrina. However, it could be extended in the “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act” (HR 4939) which the Senate will likely take up during the week of April 24th. Take action

Americans United Hails Maine Supreme Court Ruling Against Private Religious School Vouchers

Ruling Is Latest In String Of Defeats For Voucher Advocates

News Release, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, April 26, 2006

Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court today rejected a challenge from parents who demanded voucher subsidies to pay for private religious education, a decision welcomed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Continue

Florida: the religious right's school voucher campaign

Florida Amendment Would Hold Activist Courts in Check

By Jim Brown and Jody Brown, Agape Press via GOPUSA.com, March 23, 2006

"In an attempt to resurrect their state's school voucher program, Florida lawmakers are considering a proposed constitutional amendment that would limit when the state's courts can declare a law unconstitutional.

"The bill introduced by Representative David Simmons was drafted in response to a January decision the Florida Supreme Court that struck down Governor Jeb Bush's school voucher law. Click here.

Voucher Backers Ramping Up for Amendment Battle in Florida Legislature

By Jim Brown, Agape Press, February 23, 2006

"Republicans in the Florida House and Senate are crafting language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to retain its three programs for private school vouchers." Continue.

Florida Supreme Court Blocks School Vouchers

By Sam Dillon, New York Times, January 6, 2006

"In a ruling expected to reverberate through battles over school choice in many states, the Florida Supreme Court struck down a voucher program yesterday for students attending failing schools, saying the State Constitution bars Florida from using taxpayer money to finance a private alternative to the public system." Click here to read the report.

See also: the news release by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State welcoming the Florida court's decision. Americans United was one of the organizations that sued to end the program of diverting public funds to private religious schools.

Politicians, advocates comment on voucher ruling

The Gainesville Sun, January 5, 2006

"Comments by politicians, parents and advocates from both sides of the school voucher issue after the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declared the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional." Click here to read the report.

Editorial: Blame the Legislature for ruling on vouchers

Awwk! Activist judges! Awwk!

Palm Beach Post (Palm Beach, Florida), January 13, 2006

"School voucher proponents have lined up to declare that the Florida Supreme Court, which last week struck down Gov. Bush's first voucher program, is packed with "activist judges." Awwk! ...It's clear from reading the ruling - which perhaps some of the critics didn't do - that the five justices carefully preserved programs that don't violate the state constitution. That's not activism; it's their job." Click here for the editorial.

School-Choice Advocate Sees Upside to Florida Ruling Against Vouchers

Jim Brown, Agape Press, January 23, 2006

"'The most difficult thing to understand is why they would set aside something that is clearly and unequivocally designed to help children and to improve their education simply for a political motive, just to protect the public schools,' Tuttle says disgustingly. 'I think that is just utterly and completely absurd.'"Click here to read the article.

Christian Music Artists Urged to Unite Behind School Choice

By Jim Brown, Agape Press, January 20, 2006

"A Christian commentator is calling some Christian rock musicians to task for their efforts to promote more funding for public schools. He suggests they rally instead for school choice -- something he argues will eventually benefit America's public education system." Click here for the report.

Supreme court dashes hope for school vouchers in Maine

No court review of Maine law on tuition

From staff and news services, Portland Press Herald, November 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up the issue of school choice in Maine, where a state law bars the use of public funds to send students to private religious schools.

The case could have provided a platform for a court battle over school choice and the separation of church and state.

In Maine, school districts in 145 small towns with no high schools provide tuition for 17,000 students to attend high schools of their choice, public or private, in-state or out-of-state. But religious schools are not on the list.

No one involved in the case expressed surprise at the Supreme Court's refusal to consider the issue. Continue.

Supreme Court turns away Maine vouchers case

Associated Press, The First Amendment Center, November 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court today refused to take up the issue of school choice in Maine, where a state law bars the use of public funds to send students to private religious schools.

The case, Anderson v. Durham School Department, could have provided a platform for a court battle over school choice and the separation of church and state.

In Maine, school districts in 145 small towns with no high schools offer tuition for 17,000 students to attend high schools of their choice, public or private, in-state or out-of-state. But religious schools are no longer on the list.

Asking the Court to take the case, a conservative group, the Institute for Justice, is representing eight Maine families who would receive public tuition funds but for the fact that their children attend religious schools. Continue

Supreme Court Action Today Yet Another Blow To Private School Voucher Movement, Says Americans United

High Court Refuses Maine Case That Sought To Force Private School Aid

News Release, American United for Separation of Church and State, November 27, 2006

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today applauded the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal of a case from Maine that sought to force local education officials to provide tax support for private religious schools.

Without comment, the high court today declined to hear the case Anderson v. Durham School Department.

"This is yet another sign that the Supreme Court is not interested in forcing any state or jurisdiction to adopt voucher programs," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "It is time for the groups that have pursued this misguided legal strategy to gie up." Continue

Court declines school-choice appeal

Amy Fagan, Washington Times, November 27, 2006

The Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear a school-choice case out of Maine, where a group of families says it's unfair that state law bars them from using funds provided by the state's existing school-choice program to send their children to religious schools.

"Maine offers school choice to everyone except parents who choose religious schools," said Dick Komer, senior lawyer for the Institute for Justice, which represented the eight Maine families. "Under the federal Constitution, that's religious discrimination, and we will continue to seek out every opportunity to secure a ruling from the court." Continue

Texas: School vouchers

Voucher Schemes are Expensive, Ineffective and Unaccountable

Draining Money from Public Schools Will Undermine Progress

News release, Texas Freedom Network via BBSNews.net, October 1, 2006

HOUSTON – Private school voucher schemes are expensive, ineffective and unaccountable to taxpayers, the president of the Texas Freedom Network told Senate Education Committee members today.

“There are serious concerns that the Legislature’s school finance plan, which passed just this year, is already underfunded,” TFN President Kathy Miller said at an Education Committee hearing in Houston. “Now some want to pass a voucher scheme that would take millions of tax dollars from public schools to fund private schools that don’t have to meet any state standards and are unaccountable to taxpayers. Most families understand that makes no sense.” Continue.

Homeschooling

Home-School Ties Aided Huckabee's Iowa Rise

Early Backers Rallied Conservative Network

Peter Slevin and Perry Bacon Jr., The Washington Post, December 17, 2007

Eldora, Iowa -- Julie Roe, an early believer in Mike Huckabee, worked with what she had.

With no buttons, no yard signs and no glossy literature from his nearly invisible Iowa campaign, she took a pair of scissors and cut out a photograph of the former Arkansas governor. She pasted it on a piece of paper, scribbled down some of his positions, made copies and launched the Huckabee for President campaign in rural Hardin County. Roe contacted friends in her home-schooling network and bought a newspaper advertisement for $38. She spread the word in the grocery store and the church foyer: "I would tell them about Mike Huckabee and they would say, 'Who's Mike Huckleberry?' I'd say, 'No, no, no, it's Huckabee.' "

Huckabee's name is no longer a mystery to Iowa's Republican voters, in large part because of an extensive network of home-schoolers like Roe who have helped lift his underfunded campaign from obscurity to the front of a crowded field. Opinion polls show that his haphazard approach is trumping the studied strategy of Mitt Romney, who invested millions only to be shunned by many religious conservatives such as Roe, who see the former Baptist preacher from Hope, Ark., as their champion. Continue.

Home Schoolers Find Strength in Numbers

By Elizabeth Maker, Washington Depot, (Washington, Connecticut), February 11, 2007

FOR all the reputed romance of home schooling -- teaching children on your own time, in your own way, without the early morning stress of making lunches and catching the bus -- teaching children at home has always had its potential problems. Continue.

Through a Glass, Darkly

How the Christian right is reimagining U.S. history

Jeff Sharlet, Harpers Magazine, December 2006

We keep trying to explain away American fundamentalism. Those of us not engaged personally or emotionally in the biggest political and cultural movement of our times -- those on the sidelines of history -- keep trying to come up with theories with which to discredit the evident allure of this punishing yet oddly comforting idea of a deity, this strange god. His invisible hand is everywhere, say His citizen-theologians, caressing and fixing every outcome: Little League games, job searches, test scores, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the success or failure of terrorist attacks (also known as "signs"), victory or defeat in battle, at the ballot box, in bed. Those unable to feel His soothing touch at moments such as these snort at the notion of a god with the patience or the prurience to monitor every tick and twitch of desire, a supreme being able to make a lion and a lamb cuddle but unable to abide two men kissing. A divine love that speaks through hurricanes. Who would worship such a god? His followers must be dupes, or saps, or fools, their faith illiterate, insane, or misinformed, their strength fleeting, hollow, an aberration. A burp in American history. An unpleasant odor that will pass. Continue

Evangelicals intensify calls for parents to pull kids from public schools

USA Today, September 2, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) — Public schools take a lot of criticism, but a growing, loosely organized movement is now moving from harsh words to action — with parents taking their own children out of public schools and exhorting other families to do the same.

Led mainly by evangelical Christians, the movement depicts public education as hostile to religious faith and claims to be behind a surge in the number of students being schooled at home. Continue.

Home Ed Proponent: Christians Patronize Public Schools at Their Children's Peril

By Jim Brown, AgapePress, September 11, 2006

(AgapePress) - A home-schooling advocate is encouraging Christian parents across the U.S. to take their children out of public schools, even though the academic year has already begun. Charles Lowers, who heads a ministry called Considering Homeschooling, believes the faith of the vast majority of children is jeopardized by public school education.

Lowers and other advocates for Christian home education say parents should not delegate their God-given responsibility to "raise up a child in the way he should go" to godless schools with increasingly anti-Christian curricula. He feels the secular humanist indoctrination parents can expect from most public schools leaves the children of believers vulnerable to the loss of their faith and the corruption of their values. Continue.

Home-schoolers pressing conservative denominations to leave public schools making headway among Southern Baptists

By Michael Gartland, The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), June 18, 2006

A long feature on the home-schooling movement, with considerable focus on Moore, a leader of the effort to start a Southern Baptist exodus from public schools. Click here.

Louisiana State Lawmakers Honor Black Home-Schooling Families

Jim Brown, Agape Press, June 14, 2006

Louisiana state lawmakers are honoring black Americans involved in the home-schooling movement. The Louisiana State Legislature recently passed a resolution commending a group called National Black Home Educators (NBHE) for introducing the benefits of home schooling to black families in the state. Continue

The Fight for Religious Freedom Continues

Home School Legal Defense Association website, ca. June 1, 2005

This organizations that represents Christian homeschoolers announces that it will appeal a federal district court ruling that the documentation required by Pennsylvania's homeschooling law does not impose an undue burden on religious families. Click here.

Baptist Group Disputes 'Anti-Gay' School Stand

by The Associated Press, 365Gay.com, April 21, 2006

A group of Baptist leaders have responded to calls to pull Baptist children out of public schools with an open letter saying that it's wrong for church leaders to urge their congregations to abandon public schools for homeschooling or Christian academies. Click here for the report

Effort Aims to 'Evangelize' Families into Home Schooling

By Jim Brown, Agape Press, April 20, 2006

"Experienced home-schooling families are being encouraged to take part in "home-school evangelism" by bringing friends, neighbors, and relatives into home schooling.

"An estimated 700,000 American families have five or more years of home-schooling experience. According to Dr. Bruce Shortt of Exodus Mandate, if just 25 percent of those families brought new families into home schooling each year, the number of home schoolers would easily double in a few years." Click here

Homeschooling grows quickly in United States

by Reuters via CNN, March 2, 2006

The homeschooling movement (favored by many right-wing evangelical Christians) is growing at the explosive rate of 7 to 15 percent a year. One religious right estimate puts the number of children being homeschooled at 2.1 million. Click here for the report.

California court rules that home schoolers need credential

Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

Bob Egelko and Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle , March 7, 2008

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation." Continue.

Support growing for home schooling

Resolution, appeal would fight ruling

Maureen Magee, The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 17, 2008

Families who educate their children at home have been gaining a powerful band of supporters since a recent court decision that severely restricts most home schooling in the state.

California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Feb. 28 that it is illegal for parents without teaching credentials to home-school their children.

Officials from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell have vowed to protect home schooling as a legitimate choice for families who want an alternative to traditional schools. Continue.

New Court Ruling Challenges California Parents

Home Schooling in California Now Requires Pricey Accreditation

By Lisa Fletcher, ABC News, March 14, 2008

Samantha Wulf's home is also her school.

And it could be shut down now that a California court ruled that it's a crime for parents without teaching credentials to home school their kids.

Samantha's mother, Rachel Shultz, told ABC News that she couldn't imagine being criminalized for caring for her child. Both she and her mother, Samantha's grandmother, have devoted their lives to the 13-year-old's schooling.Continue.

California school chief backs parents' right to home school

Associated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 11, 2008

Sacramento – California's top public education official is reassuring parents who home school their children that his department will not try to force them into the conventional school system following a state appeals court ruling on the issue.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Feb. 28 that parents who home school their children must have a teaching credential.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement Tuesday saying that after reviewing the ruling, he sees no reason to change the state's policies regarding home schooled students. Continue.

Protection for home schooling

A ruling against home schooling reveals a belief that children are mere creatures of the state.

Editorial, The Christian Science Monitor, March 12, 2008

One triumph for US education during the past 30 years has been a turnaround by states to let parents home-school their children. As many as 1 in 25 school-age kids now are taught around the proverbial kitchen table. But the triumph is a shaky one, as a recent court ruling proves.

Last month, a three-judge panel in California ruled that only parents with state-recognized teaching credentials can educate their children at home. Otherwise, the parents are criminals and, as the court wrote, their children will not learn "loyalty to the state."

The ruling, which now turns some 166,000 of the state's home-schooled children into truants, may be overturned on appeal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to protect home-schoolers, saying correctly, "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education." The state legislature should quickly follow his lead. Continue.

California Resists Home School Ruling

Kristin Kloberdanz, Time Magazine, March 12, 2008

The parents of some 200,000 home-schooled kids in California were stunned last week when they learned that a judge had declared home schooling illegal unless conducted by a licensed teacher. For the moment, though, those parents can breathe a sigh of relief. Yesterday, Jack O'Connell, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, released a statement saying that the California Department ofEducation will not go after parents who do not have teaching credentials: "I have reviewed this case, and I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as aresult of this ruling," O'Connell said in his statement. "Parents still have the right to home school in our state."

On Feb. 28,the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles released a ruling that all children must be taught only by credentialed teachers. O'Connell's opinion makes it clear nothing will change right now — at least while the child abuse case that resulted in the ruling is pending appeal to the state Supreme Court. Continue.

Perfect storm hits California parents

Homeschooling ban latest attack on educational freedom

Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily, March 12, 2008

California parents who want more for their children than the institutionalized indoctrination of public schools are being boxed in more and more, according to an international pro-family organization whose leaders are expressing horror over a recent court ruling banning homeschooling in the state.

WND broke the story about the ruling from a Los Angeles appeals court that ordered a homeschooling family to enroll their children in a public school or "qualified" private school, specifically disallowing the program they already were in.

Since then, several petitions have been assembled to protest the decision, a multitude of homeschooling advocates have announced plans to seek to overturn it, and even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell have acknowledged parents' rights in determining their children's education should be protected. Continue.

World Congress of Families Outraged by California Home-Schooling Decision

Christian Newswire, Press release from World Congress of Families, March 12, 2008

World Congress of Families founder, Allan Carlson, expressed shock and consternation at a recent California court decision in effect banning home-schooling.

Carlson called the ruling by California Appeals Court Judge H. Walt Croskey "blatantly anti-family." Croskey held that parents who home-school their children without a teacher's certificate could be criminally prosecuted.

"It's an attempt to cut-off escape routes to families fleeing the public education system," Carlson said. "This had nothing to do with the quality of home- schooling. Home-school graduates tend to score higher on aptitude tests than products of public education. Students schooled at home frequently attend the best Ivy League colleges and universities." Continue.

California govenor blasts homeschool decision

Baptist Press, March 2008

Sacramento, Calif. (BP)--California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized a state appeals ruling related to homeschooling and pledged action on his part March 7 if it is not overturned.

The comments by the Republican governor referenced a decision that has sent shockwaves throughout the homeschooling community, not only in California but across the nation. The unanimous 3-0 ruling by the court found that "parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." It is being appealed to the California Supreme Court.

"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," Schwarzenegger said. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will." Continue.