by Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – It's a big victory for home schoolers in one California county.
Last spring, a teenager who is home schooled contacted the Silver Valley Unified School District in an effort to get a permit to travel to a job during regular school hours. The district superintendent denied the teen's request, claiming that the district had no obligation to acknowledge home schooling as a legitimate alternative to public education. The girl's parents contacted the Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization, for help.
Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus says the matter was resolved after his organization threatened legal action. “We went ahead and informed [the parents] of the law, gave them the … legal footing that was necessary to make their case with the superintendent,” Dacus says.
Dacus says the California Department of Education was encouraging the district to deny the legitimacy of home schooling by refusing to grant the teen a work permit. “The superintendent decided not to heed the intolerant opinion of the California Department of Education,,” he says, “but instead decided to go ahead and respect home schoolers as a private school, pursuant to California law, and … granted a work permit to this home schooler.”
He says the case is an example of the many challenges facing home schoolers. “There is clearly tremendous hostility and attacks on home schoolers that's vehement and growing by the establishment of public education,” the attorney says. “But on the other hand, home schooling is a ballooning educational resource and institution, and we expect to see home schooling continue to explode here on the West Coast and eventually silence those who are trying to shut them down.”
Dacus says home schoolers will face similar obstacles as the popularity of public education dwindles.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
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