Lawmakers in California are considering two bills that would trample homeschool freedom in an unprecedented way, threatening parental rights and educational liberty across the state and beyond. Even private schools would not be safe under the proposed schemes.
There are two pieces of legislation in particular that critics are working to expose and defeat. A rally in defense of educational freedom is set to take place in Sacramento on April 25, the day hearings in the Assembly Education Committee are scheduled for the bills.
One of the bills, AB 2926 by Assembly Member Susan Eggman (a lesbian Democrat), would create a committee to propose new regulations that would be imposed on homeschool families and private schools. Among the topics covered under the legislation: “minimum qualifications” for home school instructors (parents), “additional content or curriculum standards” to be imposed on homeschools, and more.
According to activists gearing up to fight the legislation, Eggman’s staffers revealed that the sought-after mandated curriculum recommended by the committee would be forced not just to home-educating families, but also on all private schools. Waldorf and Montessori schools were specifically mentioned by name, activists said.
The other bill in question, AB2756, would similarly shred homeschool freedom. Among other schemes, a draft of it would have required that government agents “inspect” homeschooling families’ homes every year, while publicizing their names and addresses. It also sets the stage for future assaults on home educators, who on average far outperform their government-schools peers on every metric. (Less than half of California students are even proficient in reading)
Critics spoke out. “Time to get on the phone with your private school administrators,” suggested U.S. Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) in an alert to members. “AB2926 and AB2756 must die. They want our children. Make no mistake. Anyone educating their children outside of the ridiculously underperforming public school system is in their targets.”
As this writer reported in February, similar attacks on home education in Hawaii were defeated — for now — but only thanks to a massive outcry by homeschool families. So opponents of the bill are asking people in California to do everything they can, and for those outside California to raise awareness and spread the word. Activist Sandy Torosian is helping organize the opposition.
With homeschool families, private school leaders, and activists across the state gearing up for a fight, there is hope that the extremist measure by fringe legislators can be quashed early. But to be defeated in committee, both Republicans and at least two of the five Democrats must vote against it or abstain. The hearing is scheduled for April 25 at 1:30 PM in Room 4202.
This battle has implications far beyond California. As government schools increasingly drop the mask and become full-blown indoctrination centers, more and more parents are running for the emergency exits to protect their children. But for power-mad totalitarians, every last child must be brainwashed into the humanist, socialist, “progressive” worldview.
Americans from across the political spectrum must rise up and defend the fundamental human right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their own children. Only totalitarians and the most evil tyrants in human history — Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and the like — would suggest that the state should be allowed to override loving parents.
