March 2008 — News

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California Superintendent: Parents Have Right To Homeschool

by Dave Nagel

"Every child in our state has a legal right to get an education," O'Connell said in response, "and I want every child to get an education that will prepare them for success in college and the world of work in the challenging global economy.

"As the head of California's public school system, I hope that every parent would want to send their children to public school. However, traditional public schools may not be the best fit for every student. Within the public school system there are a range of options available. Students can take independent study classes, attend a charter school, or participate in non-classroom-based programs. But some parents choose to send their children to private schools or to home school, and I respect that right."

Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals ruling and opinion are on the books, and subsequent administrations might not be as sympathetic to the homeschool cause as Schwarzenegger administration has proved to be. (O'Connell himself is in the second year of his second four-year term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction.) For this reason, one homeschool advocacy group, the Home School Legal Defense Association, is seeking to have the opinion "depublished" so that it can't be used as case law in future cases.

"We are encouraging all homeschoolers and anyone who wants to support parental rights and educational freedom to sign a petition on our [Web site] that calls for the depublishing of the opinion," said Michael P. Donnelly, staff counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), in an interview with THE Journal over the weekend. "This is a proper procedure in [California] that would essentially confine the ruling of this case to the factual circumstances and prevent the case from being used as precedent in other courts in the State."

That petition now has about 230,000 online signatures, up from about 160,000 Monday.