This little tidbit was passed on to me by a good friend…a friend who lives in Canada of all places.  It goes to show you that even Canadians can see the horror that is taking place in America, and especially in places like California.

I have written many times about the loss of personal freedom being forced on naïve Americans by the far left.  For example, December 31, 2005, January 21, 2006, July 5, 2006, and December 3, 2007.  The list of vanishing individual freedoms is growing very long, including the right to smoke in your own home or outdoors, the right to light a city after dark, the right to express traditional Judeo-Christian views, the right to control your own property, the right to eat what you want, and the right to choose whether or not to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle. (Watch out bicyclists, you are next.)

The current horror was reported by Randy Hall, CNSNews.com (March 10, 2008).  He wrote that:

“A ruling by a California appeals court that parents "do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children" drew harsh criticism from religious conservatives on Friday.

"‘The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,’ James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, said in a press release responding to a three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which ruled on Feb. 28 that parents without teaching credentials cannot home-school their children.

‘How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents as criminals - the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets - because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?’ Dobson asked.”

This case stemmed from the fact that the father in one family…one family…which was home schooling its eight children was accused of child abuse.  Those of you who read the commentaries on this site know that I am an advocate for children who have been abused.  In that case, the juvenile court ordered the children to be placed in a public or private school for their own safety.  If the allegations of abuse were accurate, then this seems to be a reasonable intervention…along with the punishment of the abuser.  In the ruling however, the decision was much more far reaching than that.  ALL parents in California who are not licensed as teachers may not home school. 

According to the CNSNews.com report, “parents who fail to comply with school enrollment laws ‘may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,’”   The decision was written by Justice H. Walter Croskey…and was joined by the other two members of the panel.

Dobson stated that the case "‘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.’”

"‘The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking,’ said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which describes itself as ‘a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties.’"

"‘It not only attacks traditional home-schooling, but also calls into question home- schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools,’ Dacus noted in a press release Friday.

“If the Feb. 28 decision is not reversed, ‘the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions’ if they continue to live in California, he added.

“Until now, the state allowed home schooling if parents filed paperwork to establish themselves as small, private schools, hired a credentialed tutor or enrolled their child in an independent study program run by an established school while teaching him or her at home. Enforcement was left up to local school districts with little oversight.  To receive a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, one must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university and pass a number of examinations.

“Such requirements are supported by a number of unions - including the California Teachers Association (CTA), the state's largest teacher's union.  Another supporter of certification for home school teachers is the National Education Association (NEA).”

No kidding.  Teacher’s unions have been opposed to home schooling forever, despite the fact that the test scores of home school children are generally equal to or better than those of children in public schools. 

“The NEA has posted on its web site (www.nea.org) an article written by Dave Arnold from the group's Illinois chapter entitled, ‘Home Schools Run by Well-Meaning Amateurs.’  In his opinion, many home schools are run by ‘well-meaning but gullible parents,’ including those who educate their children according to their ‘religious convictions’ and see home-schooling as the best way to combat our nation's ‘ungodly’ public schools.  Those parents ‘would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible,’ Arnold added.”

I don’t believe I have ever heard a more arrogant, authoritarian statement about education in my life…and I spend 14 years as a student in our institutions of higher education …where arrogance is an every day experience.  This arrogance is offensive on two counts…first because it belittles parents who wish to teach their children and second because it focuses on the fact that some people might actually want their children to be educated “according to their religious convictions”.  God Forbid!!!!

And herein lays the heart of the issue.  Leftist secularists do not want our children to be trained in any aspect of Judeo-Christian ethics, theology, values, or morals.  Why, you say?  The answer is very clear:  because a nation that is made up of people who have religious values will never become a socialist or communist state.  The left is clear in its goal and has been since Senator Joseph McCarthy fought so hard, even to his own death, to rid the nation’s government of communists.

According to the CNSNews.com report, James “Dobson noted that he views the court's decision ‘an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children.  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, …and we're hopeful that, in the end, common sense and legal sanity will prevail.’”

I am more pessimistic than Mr. Dobson.  I do not believe that there are enough Americans left who really understand what is happening.  The “hypnosis of the left” is overpowering and will lead to the end of America.  When we are all speaking French or Arabic or both, we can look back to this generation as the one that brought about the demise of the greatest nation on earth.  I believe it is that serious.

At the very least, we all need to speak up for parental rights.  I have included a link that will direct you to a site dedicated to that cause.  www.parentalrights.org

It will also give you a chance to sign a petition that calls for a constitutional amendment that protects the parent-child relationship from unreasonable government interference.  We HAVE to keep the left from furthering its efforts to control the education of our kids.