DELAINE EASTIN LIES

Furthermore, these IDIOTS you proclaim can't provide "any supervision whatsoever" got tired of waiting for their public servants like you to do something constructive for a change, and set up their own private schools which beat even home schooled students, right there in your back yard.  Right there in your state of California, these private schools consistently score 284 in NAEP Math (the top ninetieth percentile nationwide), which is a light year ahead of California's public schools, at 262 (the bottom tenth percentile nationwide).

In the state of California, a parent who did such a miserable job of educating a child would be charged with the criminal offense of "educational neglect".  What did you do about it?   Since you were elected, California's NAEP scores decreased one point.  Coupled with your perjury, right now, you look more like a criminal than a superintendent or an advocate for education.

http://www.capitolresource.org/deletter.htm

Reprint of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin’s, letter to California legislators.



August 27, 2002


Dear Assembly Members (Senators):

Over the last few weeks, the Department of Education has been characterized in some circles as being engaged in a campaign to harass home schoolers and to root out home schooling in California. My staff and I have received dozens of angry telephone calls and written communications that unfairly assume that the Department is misapplying the state’s compulsory education law in derogation of the rights of parents, and a handful of conservative publications have attacked our application of the law. None of these charges is true, of course, but the amount of misinformation, and passion, in these communications does make me believe that the situation cries out for a legislative solution.

The enclosed legal analysis, entitled “The Compulsory Education Law and Home Schooling in California,” traces the history of our compulsory education law. Although at one time California recognized home schooling as an authorized means of complying with school attendance requirements, the option of education in the home has not been included in our statutes since 1903.

In the more recent past, we believe that aggressive home school advocates have counseled home schoolers to attempt to bring their practice within the private school exemption by filing a Private School Affidavit (See Ed. Code � 33190). Home school advocates apparently assume that, once such a Private School Affidavit is filed, the home-schooled children are no longer truant under the compulsory education law (Ed. Code � 48200). The Department does not believe that the Legislature intended this result, however, given the specific statement in section 33190 that the mere filing of an affidavit does not constitute official approval or endorsement of the school. Moreover, the very narrow purpose of the affidavit, as related to the Department, is to publish a list of private schools—which we have always interpreted to be a resource for parents’ use in selecting a private educational setting for their children. Home schools obviously have no relation to this purpose.

If home-schooled children—i.e., those receiving instruction in their home exclusively from a parent who does not have a teaching credential—were exempted from compulsory education laws by the mere filing of an affidavit (which cannot be verified beyond the fact that it has been filed), then there would be potentially thousands of children in California whose education would not be subject to any supervision whatsoever. Home schools are not even subject to competition from private schools, where the marketplace would presumably ensure some level of quality and innovation.

The state does not have any information, beyond the anecdotal, about the quality of education in home schools in California. If home schools are to be authorized in California, that change needs to be made clear in the law. If there are conditions that ought to be placed upon the quality of education being offered in a home school, then that should be made clear as well. Our laws currently require that a private tutor possess an appropriate teaching credential, but they say nothing about the qualifications or resources that a parent needs in order to solely teach an educational curriculum to his or her child.

As I noted to you at the beginning of this letter, the issue of home schooling in our state deserves careful consideration by the Legislature. I therefore urge you to give this matter your prompt attention. California’s children deserve no less.

Sincerely,


DELAINE EASTIN
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
(916) 319-0800