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Protect California homeschoolers from AB 2926 and AB 2756

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Homeschoolers protected -- AB 2926 / AB 2756 stopped

Status of bills: Rejoice that AB 2926 and AB 2756 were stopped in the Assembly Education Committee. Pressure from nearly 1,000 homeschoolers who came to the State Capitol to fill the committee room, on top of the hundreds of opposition phone calls each committee member had received, made a decisive impact on this "swing issue" (more Democrats are joining Republicans in supporting homeschooling). 

At the April 25 committee meeting, AB 2756 (Medina) died for lack of a second (If a committee member says "I'm going to move the bill" but no committee member says "I second it," no vote can commence -- no "second," no vote). The official record reads "Held without recommendation." Likewise, overwhelming opposition from homeschoolers resulted in the second bill, AB 2926, being pulled. The official record reads "Hearing canceled at the request of author."

BACKGROUND

AB 2926 attacked the freedoms of homeschooling families by threatening vast, new burdensome requirements through the creation of a State Department of Education committee. The subversive goal of this bill was to eliminate the current exempt classification for homeschoolers, thus permitting the State of California to regulate and investigate homeschoolers in any way they wanted. Read this expert analysis 

AB 2756 further invaded the privacy of homeschooling families by publicizing the parents' names and home address, making these prominently noticed by the anti-family "Child Protective Services" and setting the stage for State control of homeschooling. The "fire marshall inspection" language had already been removed, yet AB 2756 still allowed the official "educrats" of the State Education Department to zero in on and plan future regulations of who they don't like -- homeschooling families. See this analysis 

In Meyer v. Nebraska,1 the Court invalidated a state law which prohibited foreign language instruction for school children because the law did not "promote" education but rather "arbitrarily and unreasonably" interfered with "the natural duty of the parent to give his children education suitable to their station in life..." 2 The court chastened the legislature for attempting "materially to interfere with the power of parents to control the education of their own."This decision clearly affirmed that the Constitution protects the preferences of the parent in education over those of the State. In the same decision, the Supreme Court also recognized that the right of the parents to delegate their authority to a teacher in order to instruct their children was protected within the liberty of the Fourteenth Amendment. Furthermore, the Court emphasized, "The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right of the individual ... to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to his own conscience."