Depuis 1988, en application de la Proposition 98, les établissements scolaires avaient l'assurance de disposer chaque année d'un budget au moins égal à celui de l’année précédente, leur permettant de planifier leurs dépenses de personnel. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, le Gouverneur de l'Etat californien, vient d'annoncer la suspension de ce dispositif de financement et la réduction  du budget éducation de 10% (c'est-à-dire de plus de 2,6 milliards d’euros) pour la prochaine année scolaire. 

L’association californienne des enseignants, estime le nombre de licenciements pour les 32 districts à plus de 20000 (enseignants contractuels et divers personnels).
 
 

By Joe Fimiani - MercuryNews - 10 mars 2008

JOE FIMIANI is interim Santa Clara County superintendent of schools. 
He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

With the mid-March deadline looming, the majority of Santa Clara County's 32 school districts in recent days have been sending layoff notices to teachers and other certificated staff members.

The districts don't know how many teachers will have to be laid off. In fact, they don't even know whether teachers will have to be laid off. But with the announced intention of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut state expenditures across the board by 10 percent next year, most school administrators feel they have no recourse but to take their best guess on how many notices to send.

It's difficult to convey the effect this has - both on those who receive the notices, and on those who send them. As a former teacher and principal who has been on the receiving end, I can say it is unnerving, demoralizing and thought-provoking. (One thought it provokes is, "Why the heck am I in this profession?")

And today, as an administrator whose office just sent out 42 of these notices, I am sick about the notion that we might lose qualified, skilled classroom teachers who are extremely hard to replace. Even if they are not laid off later, they certainly will begin to explore other professional options now.

This exercise in budgetary uncertainty plays out annually; some years it is more painful than others. This is one of those years. Although the state's tortuous (and torturous) budget process is notorious for putting state agencies in fiscal limbo while the final figures are hashed out, the state's voters attempted to lend some stability to the process in 1988, when they approved Proposition 98.

The philosophy of the proposition was simple. 
School administrators might not know the details of the state budget in advance of their own financial planning and projections, but at least they could rely on revenues being no worse than equal to those of the preceding year.

But this year, the certainty is being threatened. The governor has said he wants to suspend Proposition 98, which would allow him to cut more than $4 billion in education funding. The sentiment among some in Sacramento is that Proposition 98 will have to be suspended in order to reach a deal on the budget.

This is a misguided, reckless idea. Lawmakers cannot simply jerk away Proposition 98 as if they are magicians yanking a tablecloth from underneath the plates and stemware, and expect everything to remain standing and unbroken. California already ranks near the bottom nationally in per-student funding. And that is with the protective base of Proposition 98 in place. Just how far are we willing to let our schools plummet in funding? Are we destined for the shame of becoming dead-last?

In a state of magnificent wealth and innovation such as ours, how can we justify this?

My greatest concern is the effect these draconian cuts would have on student learning. We have made significant progress in our schools in recent years. The trend line of test scores has been one of gradual, steady increase since testing started.

This is no time to stop the flow of resources and energy that schools throughout the state have channeled toward student achievement.

Our students did nothing to cause the financial difficulties we face today. It does not make sense to fashion a solution at their expense. They would suffer for it now and for the rest of their lives. And, as part of the community in which they will live and work, so will the rest of us.

This is why I have joined the superintendents of our county's school districts in an effort to fight the notion that Proposition 98 is expendable, and subject to the whim of the governor and legislators. Our children deserve better. Everyone seems to agree, year in and year out, that the education of our children is one of our highest priorities and most compelling duties.

It's time for our actions to live up to our words.

School districts up and down this state are sending out pink slips to tens of thousands of hard-working, dedicated teachers, administrators, and school staff, not because our state faces a spending problem, but because we face a priorities problem," he said. "Over the past five years, California schools have been making steady gains in student achievement thanks to our high standards, effective reforms, and the dedication and passion of these same educators. Today this progress and the future of our students are in grave jeopardy." 

  2002 : Des extrémistes chrétiens en campagne pour Bush
A la veille de la convention du Parti républicain, qui doit s'ouvrir lundi 30 septembre à New York, Le Monde publie une enquête sur les fondamentalistes protestants – on en compte environ 30 millions –, qui constituent le socle idéologique et électoral de George W.  Bush. Ainsi que l'explique Alfred Ross, qui dirige le Centre d'étude pour la démocratie à New York, "les réseaux de la droite religieuse" sont "au cœur même du pouvoir républicain".
Opposés à l'avortement, aux recherches sur les cellules souches d'embryon et favorables à un modèle normatif en matière de mœurs, ils vont parfois même jusqu'à interdire la mixité dans certaines universités ou encore contester les études darwiniennes sur l'évolution des espèces. (Le Monde - 28.08.02)

  Les évangéliques : La secte qui veut conquérir le monde
C’est le courant religieux qui progresse le plus vite aujourd’hui. 
Ils sont déjà 500 millions qui croient à l’Armageddon, la bataille finale et prochaine entre les forces du Bien et du Mal. 
Ils s’appuient sur la télévision, internet, les jeux vidéo ou les romans de science-fiction pour convertir en masse. 
George W. Bush, comme nombre de ses ministres et conseillers, partage leur vision messianique du monde et de l’avenir. 
Jusqu’à l’extrême ? 

Les croisés américains du Home Schooling. Liée à l’église évangélique : la "Home School Legal Defense Association"

  Les créationnistes jouent sur du velours. Selon un sondage CBS de novembre 2004, 55 % des Américains croient que "Dieu a créé les humains dans leur forme actuelle"  (67 % des républicains ; 47 % des démocrates)

   Lourde peine pour une écolière amoureuse.
Une jeune fille de 12 ans ayant écrit «Je t’aime Alex» sur les murs d’une école, a été envoyée pour 4 mois dans un établissement "accueillant" des élèves "en difficulté". Parmi de nombreuses autres jolies colonies de vacances du même type : Tranquillity bay, gérée par la WWASP (patronnée par le professeur Skinner, le père de la psychologie comportementaliste).

Pour 3000 dollars par mois, il promet de transformer ces récalcitrants en citoyens dociles et travailleurs.

  Écoles poudrières aux États-Unis.  "Pourquoi des jeunes se sentent-ils exclus et se vengent en tuant. C'est la vraie question, conclut le professeur Vianno. Et comme personne ne veut se la poser aux Etats-Unis, cela va continuer".

  21 meurtres d'élèves dans les écoles américaines en 2004/2005
Sur les 54,9 millions d'élèves dans les écoles américaines, 28 élèves sont décédés de morts violentes: 21 ont été tués et 7 se sont suicidés dans l'enceinte de l'école.

  Le Congrès pour les fouilles corporelles dans les écoles.

  Des aberrations scientifiques pour mieux prêcher la chasteté. Cette année, 40 des 50 Etats doivent faire face à diverses procédures visant à contester l'enseignement de la théorie de l'évolution dans les écoles publiques.

  Quelque 6000 étudiants sont attendus sur le campus  "sans péché" (l’Ave Maria University), qui ne connaîtra ni préservatifs ou autre moyen de contraception, ni homosexualité, ni avortement. "L’Ave Maria University doit devenir l’"académie militaire de la spiritualité"...

  La chute de l’éducation supérieure américaine. Les bourses accordées aux étudiants pauvres couvraient 70% du coût des études dans les années 90 contre la moitié aujourd’hui. L’étude souligne l’importante inégalité entre riches et pauvres en matière d’éducation supérieure.

   Etats-Unis : Une année d’étude à 50 000 dollars. L’Université privée George Washington est devenue la première université américaine à réclamer aux étudiants de premier cycle (undergraduates) plus de 50 000 dollars par an, soit 39 000 dollars pour les cours et 11 000 dollars de droits d’inscription. De façon générale (secteur privé et public confondu), les frais de scolarité et les droits d’inscription pour le premier cycle d’étude ont augmenté au cours des cinq dernières années de 35%.

  Les étudiants étrangers boudent les Etats-Unis.

  Une majorité de jeunes Américains incapables de situer l'Irak sur une carte.

  Un établissement scolaire de Californie oblige désormais ses élèves à porter des badges qui permettent de suivre leur moindre mouvement, comme pour le bétail.
Ces macarons sont munis d'un émetteur qui permet de garder la trace de l'élève, en enregistrant ses allées et venues lorsqu'il passe devant des bornes installées à l'entrée des salles de classe mais aussi dans les toilettes.
Cette technologie est habituellement utilisée pour les moutons ou l'inventaire des produits en magasin.
Le directeur justifie cette initiative pour lutter contre l'absentéisme en simplifiant l'appel et le vandalisme. 
"C'est stupide et ça craint".

  45 millions de personnes sans système de santé dans le pays le plus riche du monde.

  Le système de santé américain est le plus onéreux parmi les pays industrialisés et l'un des moins efficaces en terme de nombre de personnes couvertes.

Les inégalités s'accroissent aux Etats-Unis. L'écart de rémunération entre un PDG et un salarié aux Etats-Unis de 1 à 40 en 1980, est passé de 1 à 411 en 2005.

  Plus de téléviseurs que de personnes dans les foyers américains.

  L’abstinence sexuelle renforcée : 131 millions de dollars (augmentation de 30 millions) pour les programmes fédéraux vantant auprès des collégiens et lycéens américains les mérites de l’inexistence d’une vie sexuelle avant le mariage. 

  Quel est le véritable message des chrétiens évangéliques conservateurs ?
Les raisons de l’engagement politique des évangéliques américains : la défense de la morale traditionnelle et des valeurs chrétiennes.
Détour par Lynchburg, patrie de de la droite chrétienne. Et revue de détail de leurs thèmes de prédilection : refus de l’avortement et du mariage gay, la prière à l’école et le «home schooling» (l’école chez soi) ou le soutien à Israël.

  Expulsion de missionnaires évangéliques américains du mouvement "Nouvelles tribus" installés dans des régions à forte population indienne. Sous couvert d’évangélisation : exploitation illimitée et illégale des ressources naturelles en territoires indiens, au profit de compagnies nord-américaines comme General Dynamics et Westinghouse, elles-mêmes liées à l’industrie militaire et au constructeur automobile Ford. Cette organisation compterait une flotte d’aviation, pistes d’atterrissage, et puissant réseau de télécommunications. Plus grave, l’organisation est accusée de s’être servi de communautés entières, Yanomami entre autres, pour des expérimentations génétiques.

A Montreuil, "un pasteur miracle" américain attire les foules.

"Le racisme aux Etats-Unis est un monstre tapi". Beaucoup d'Américains voient La Nouvelle-Orléans comme un lieu de péché. Pour eux, les inondations sont un moyen de se débarrasser de la prostitution, du crime et de la drogue, et de favoriser les investissements.

  L’implantation de puces sous-cutanées autorisée sur des individus.

  Tous les citoyens américains auront un passeport à puce RFID en 2006.

Le nombre total des armes à feu en circulation aux Etats-Unis est estimé à plus de 200 millions, dont 65 millions d'armes de poing, pour une population totale de 284 millions d'habitants. Selon des statistiques gouvernementales remontant à la fin des années 90, les armes à feu sont la cause de la mort d'un enfant ou adolescent toutes les deux heures, par crime, accident ou suicide. En 1997, ces armes ont été responsables de la mort de 32.436 personnes, selon ces mêmes statistiques.

  Ce vent punitif qui vient d'Amérique. Il ne reste alors qu’à entonner l’antienne tocquevillienne de l’initiative citoyenne pour justifier l’importation en France des techniques locales de maintien de l’ordre américaines.

  Les Etats-Unis comptaient à la fin de l'an 2000 un nombre record de plus de deux millions de détenus.

  ... Autrement dit, doit-on se réjouir de vivre dans un État laïque ?  Et il a eu la mauvaise surprise de constater que pour tous ces indicateurs sans exception, son propre pays, au demeurant le plus dévot de tous, réalise les plus mauvais scores, et même souvent de très loin. 

  4000 Québécois fréquentent des écoles "clandestines" pentecôtistes.  Les écoles pentecôtistes enseignent notamment le créationnisme.

Sale temps pour les mouches !

Jesus Camp (cf "évangélistes" & "homeschooling" )
"popularisé" par un film récent,
est maintenant fermé "pour quelque temps".
Ce qui n'exclut pas l'ouverture d'autres, ailleurs, du même genre....
Mais l'un des hystérico-prédicateurs présentés dans le film
a eu quelques ennuis : "(uncorrect) sex & drug"...

 L'Afrique, peu pollueuse, paie le prix fort du réchauffement climatique
Les changements climatiques auront  un impact sans précédent sur le développement,
dont d'importants revers en matière de réduction de la pauvreté, de nutrition, de santé et d’éducation.
Le revenu par habitant devrait baisser d'un quart en Afrique sub-saharienne.
...qui émet moins de dioxyde de carbone (CO2), le principal gaz à effet de serre, que l'état du Texas à lui tout seul.
La Californie (395 millions de tonnes de CO2) pollue plus que 106 pays en développement
ou que le seul Brésil, pourtant cinq fois plus peuplé. (rapport du National Environment Trust [NET] à la conférence de l’ONU sur le climat.)
 
 

Seuls les parents possèdant les diplômes nécessaires seraient autorisés à pratiquer "l'école à la maison".

Le 28 février 2008, une décision en Cour d'Appel précise cette condition, à l'occasion d'une Nième affaire concernant une famille régulièrement signalée par les services sociaux pour divers motifs dont celui de brutalités envers certains de leurs huit enfants...

La cour d'appel a estimé que la surveillance occasionnelle par une école paroissiale était insuffisante pour prétexter une inscription dans une école privée. Les parents ne possèdant pas le niveau suffisant pour un enseignement, elle a estimé qu'ils avaient enfreint la loi.

"Les parents n'ont aucun droit constutionnel à enseigner leurs enfants à domicile", disent les 3 juges de la cour d'appel.
"Les parents en infraction peuvent être poursuivis, déclarés coupables d'une infraction et condamnés à une amende ou une injonction de suivre un programme adéquat"

Le père a déclaré que l'école publique est en conflit avec ses croyances : "elle enseigne l'évolution, à laquelle je ne crois pas. Mon épouse passe six heures par jour à enseigner la lecture, l'écriture, les maths, les sciences, l'éducation physique et la Bible".

Toutes les ligues conservatrices sont sur le pied de guerre.

Et Arnold Schwarzenegger les a aussitôt assurées de son soutien...
"This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."

... Suivi par le "ministre" de l'éducation de l'Etat : "/.../Within the public school system there are a range of options available. Students can take independent study classes, attend a charter school, or participate in non-classroom-based programs. But some parents choose to send their children to private schools or to home school, and I respect that right./..."

By Seema Mehta - March 8, 2008 - 

Governor criticizes court requirement of a teaching credential and says he will move to protect practice.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Friday for the reversal of a recent appellate court decision banning parents from educating their children at home if they lack a teaching credential. If the state Supreme Court fails to act, the governor vowed to push through legislation guaranteeing families' right to home school.

"This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will," he said in a written statement.

Schwarzenegger's comments about the ruling came as home schooling families and national conservative leaders expressed increased concerns over the practice that they believe every parent has a fundamental right to exercise.

On Feb. 28, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that parents must have a teaching credential to home school their children. The decision has not yet gone into effect and it is unlikely to be enforced pending appeals to the state Supreme Court by attorneys representing Phillip and Mary Long, the Lynwood couple at the center of the case, and others.

The California Department of Education allows home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as small private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts while still teaching at home.

California does little to enforce those provisions and insists it is the local school districts' responsibility. In addition, state education officials say some parents home school their children without the knowledge of any entity.

The Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing a parochial school that is popular with home schoolers, including the Long family, plans to appeal the ruling.

The institute estimates that there are as many as 166,000 California students who are home schooled. State education department officials, whose Sacramento offices were picketed by home schooling families Friday, said there is no way of knowing the true number.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell spoke out about the ruling for the first time Friday at a news conference in Alameda in which he reaffirmed his support for parents to educate their children as they see fit while urging them to work with institutions to ensure that their children will be successful.

"Whatever works best for that family, he would support as long as the children are getting a good education," department spokeswoman Pam Slater said.

"He wants home school parents to make sure they have partnerships with school districts or charter schools to make sure they have the right curriculum, everything a child needs to succeed and get into college," Slater said.

Conservative leaders across the nation also weighed in on the matter, with evangelist James C. Dobson interrupting his "Focus on the Family" radio program's regular programming to discuss the ruling.

"What has occurred is yet another egregious decision handed down by a California appeals court that strikes at the very heart and soul of families and their children," he said Friday morning. "The court has assaulted parental rights again and this time with a sledgehammer."

The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Assn. also started an online petition to urge the state Supreme Court to "depublish" the ruling, meaning it would apply only to the family in question and not set a precedent.

Thousands of supporters from across the nation were signing the petition every hour, and by 6:30 p.m., it had more than 82,000 signatures.

In California, hundreds of worried home school families have been inundating the state Department of Education, the offices of the governor and state legislators as well as home school advocacy groups with phone calls and e-mails.

"We're very busy" answering phones, said Susan Beatty, co-founder of the Norwalk-based Christian Home Educators Assn. of California. "Most of them are confused and just want to be reassured. There is some talk that home school is illegal after today, which is, of course, not true."

Beatty said the group was telling parents, "There's no reason to be afraid, they can continue to home school as they have in the past."

The appellate court ruling stemmed from a case involving the Longs, who were repeatedly referred to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services over various allegations, including charges of physical abuse involving some of their eight children.

A lawyer appointed to represent two of the Long's young children requested that the court require them to physically attend a public or private school where adults could monitor their well-being.

The appellate court ruled that a parochial school's occasional monitoring of the children's education is insufficient to qualify as being enrolled in a private school, and because Mary Long does not hold a teaching credential, the court determined that the family is breaking state law.

Seema Mehta and Mitchell Landsberg - March 8, 2008 -

State appellate court says those who teach children in private must have a credential.

Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California's home schooling families.

Advocates for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands, home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in the nation.

"This decision is a direct hit against every home schooler in California," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which represents the Sunland Christian School, which specializes in religious home schooling. "If the state Supreme Court does not reverse this . . . there will be nothing to prevent home-school witch hunts from being implemented in every corner of the state of California."

The institute estimates there are as many as 166,000 California students who are home schooled. State Department of Education officials say there is no way to know the true number.

Unlike at least 30 other states, home schooling is not specifically addressed in California law. Under the state education code, students must be enrolled in a public or private school, or can be taught at home by a credentialed tutor.

The California Department of Education currently allows home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as small private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts while still teaching at home.

California does little to enforce those provisions and insists it is the local school districts' responsibility. In addition, state education officials say some parents home school their children without the knowledge of any entity.

Home schoolers and government officials have largely accepted this murky arrangement.

"This works so well, I don't see any reason to change it," said J. Michael Smith, president of the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Assn.
  

All of the children are currently or had been enrolled in Sunland Christian School, where they would occasionally take tests, but were educated in their home by their mother, Phillip Long said.

A lawyer appointed to represent two of the Long's young children requested that the court require them to physically attend a public or private school where adults could monitor their well-being. A trial court disagreed, but the children's lawyer appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has jurisdiction over Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The appellate panel ruled that Sunland officials' occasional monitoring of the Longs' home schooling -- with the children taking some tests at the school -- is insufficient to qualify as being enrolled in a private school. Since Mary Long does not have a teaching credential, the family is violating state laws, the ruling said.

"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court. "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."

Phillip Long said he believes the ruling stems from hostility against Christians and vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

"I have sincerely held religious beliefs," he said. "Public schools conflict with that. I have to go with what my conscience requires me."

Public schools teach such topics as evolution, which Long said he doesn't believe in. He said his wife spends six hours each day teaching their children reading, writing, math, science, health, physical education, Bible and social studies. Court papers say Mary Long's education ended at 11th grade.

It's unclear if the ruling will be enforced, given the likely appeals. Typically, these rulings take effect 30 days after they are issued.

Other organizations that plan to get involved include the Pacific Justice Institute, Home School Legal Defense Assn. and the Home School Assn. of California.

Meanwhile, state Department of Education's attorneys are reviewing the ruling.

Teachers union officials will also be closely monitoring the appeal. A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said he agrees with the ruling.

"What's best for a child is to be taught by a credentialed teacher," he said.

While many educators and officials remained unfamiliar with the ruling Tuesday, news about it has been sweeping websites and blogs devoted to home schooling. Organizations have been getting tense phone calls from parents worried that they will be targeted.

Families who home school includethose whose religious beliefs conflict with public schools and those whose children are in the entertainment industry or have other time-consuming activities that require them to study at an individualized pace.

Glenn and Kathleen, a Sacramento-area couple who requested that their last name not be used for fear of prosecution, home school their 9-year-old son Hunter because their Christian beliefs would be contradicted in a public school setting, Glenn said. He is troubled by the idea that his son would be exposed to teachings about evolution, homosexuality, same-sex marriage and sex education .

"I want to have control over what goes in my son's head, not what's put in there by people who might be on the far left who have their own ideas about indoctrinating kids," he said.

If the ruling takes effect, Glenn vowed to move his family out of state. "If I can't home school my son in California, we're going to have to end up leaving California. That's how important it is to me."

March 8, 2008 -  By A. Fagan

National and California home-schooling advocates are banding together to fight a state court ruling they say could essentially outlaw the practice of allowing parents to teach their children at home. 

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and the Home School Association of California (HSC) say the court decision, which said home-schooling parents must have a valid state teaching license and they have no constitutional right to home-school, takes aim at the education programs many families use to get exemption from the public school system. 
"We're kind of in shock," said Mike Smith, HSLDA president. 

The Los Angeles-based case began when the county petitioned to have two home-schooled children enrolled in public or private school after an older sibling accused the father of abuse. A lower state court ruled against that idea, citing a constitutional right held by parents to educate their children at home. The appeals court disagreed and reversed that ruling.

"California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to educate their children in their own home," said the Feb. 28 ruling by the California Appellate Court for the second district. 

"It's c1ear to us that enrollment and attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor children," it stated, laying out the few exceptions to that rule, including if the child is enrolled in and attends a private full-time day school or if the child is tutored by a person holding a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught. 

The court said none of these exemptions apply to the case, in which the mother did not hold a teaching credential but taught her children at home through an extension, or independent study program, of Sunland Christian School, where the children were officially enrolled. The court said that setup doesn't qualify as private school attendance or a credentialed tutor under state law. 

But Mr. Smith said for years, California parents have been allowed to home-school their children under the private school exemption, either by establishing themselves as small private schools or using an extension program or independent study program of an existing private school. 

The court ruling threatens these setups, he said, and could be used to require parents to get credentials. If it stands, Mr. Smith estimates it would only allow 10 percent of the current California home-schooling families to continue. 
HSC estimates there are between 60,000 to 200,000 school-age children being home-schooled in California. 
To earn a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, an individual must complete a bachelor's degree and take multiple exams. 

Fred Glass, spokesman for the California Federation of Teachers, said requiring a child's teacher to hold astate teaching credential is hardly a bad thing. 
"I1's a matter of holding the standards high enough to ensure that children get a decent education," he said. A credential doesn't guarantee that, he said, but "i1's probably the best measure we have." 
The California Department of Education is still reviewing the ruling, said department spokeswoman Pam Slater. "We don't know its reach," she said. 

Mr. Smith said no other states are atlempting a similar move on home-schooling, but he said if the California ruling stands, other states may try to mimic it. State laws on home-schooling vary, though ail allow it to some degree. 
HSLDA lists six states as "high regulation" states that make it difficult for home-school parents, by requiring them to send the government notification or test scores, or other requirements. Mr. Smith said the court ruling would make California the worst.

According to the HSC, the family in this case ''was not the one we would have picked for a home-school test case." Still, the organization insisted the court got it wrong, and the decision, "means that ail educational alternatives could be construed as iIIegal, from home-schooling to distance learning to [independent study programs]." 
Debbie Schwarzer, an HSC volunteer, noted that the ruling could also be interpreted more narrowly, to apply only to the family in question, or to home-school families operating under an independent study program Iike Sun land Christian's. 

"Absolute confusion," she said of the ruling. "None of us know." 
ML Smith said that as far as the credentialling issue goes, a credential doesn't guarantee a better education. He said his group compared a group of home-schooling children whose parents had varying levels of education from high school only to astate teaching credential and found there was no appreciable difference in how they scored. 
"Teacher certification doesn't guarantee anything," he said. 

Les croisés américains du Home Schooling

"Ne soyez pas satisfait du statu quo. 
Continuez à agir pour plus de liberté de telle façon que les parents puissent choisir les programmes et quand faire l'école à la maison. 
Nous ne voulons pas de contrôle gouvernemental".

Avocat du Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), une association de Virginie, 
C.J. Klicka invite les partisans étrangers de l'école à la maison au combat.

Son organisation est liée à l'église évangélique
et c'est son église qui sert de relais en dehors des Etats-Unis pour promouvoir l'école en famille.

From his cozy home office here, Christopher J. Klicka is dispensing advice to two evangelical Christian ministers who also happen to be home-schooling dads from Japan. 
“Never be satisfied with the status quo,” Mr. Klicka tells his guests. “Keep pushing for more freedom so that parents can choose the curriculum and when to home-school. We don’t want that controlled by the government.”

Mr. Klicka, 44, has long been fighting that battle stateside as a lawyer for the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Va. Since its founding in 1983, the nonprofit organization run by evangelical Christians has defended families who want to home-school and has lobbied for laws to making home schooling legal and less regulated.

For the past decade, though, Mr. Klicka has been a home-schooling missionary abroad as well. He has visited other countries to help parents set up organizations modeled after the U.S.-based one. According to the association’s Web site, www. hslda.org, he or some other of the group’s staff or 80,000 members have helped home schoolers in 24 countries.

Mr. Klicka says that while in the past decade some countries—including South Africa and Taiwan—have legalized home schooling, many countries still don’t have explicit laws for home schooling, and some countries that have legalized the practice have burdensome regulations. The HSLDA advises home schoolers on how to be better advocates. For example, if the country permits private schooling, Mr. Klicka counsels them to argue that home schooling is a form of private schooling.

Mr. Yoshii and Mr. Oyama estimate that some 300 Japanese families—about a third of them Christian—teach their children at home, stemming, they say, from the bullying and extreme competition in Japanese schools.
As a Christian, Mr. Oyama said, he is also uncomfortable with how Japanese schools teach nationalism. “It’s a military style,” he said. “You have to sing the national anthem. The content is praising the emperor. He is God.”

One of the biggest problems home-schooling parents face in Japan is ostracism by other Japanese, some Christians included, according to Mr. Oyama. He and his wife, Kathy, an American, began home-schooling their four children in California, where they lived for about a decade. A year ago, the family moved to Japan, Mr. Oyama’s homeland, where he is the pastor of a church of about 250 members.

Hiroshi Kamiyo, the education counselor for the Embassy of Japan, in Washington, said that the Japanese government has no policy on home schooling, but that the constitution says parents have a duty to make sure their children are educated. The government prefers Japanese to send their children to public or private schools, he said, but won’t force them to do so. “So far, our government [education] policy is focused on other areas, like how to address absenteeism or dropouts, or violence and bullying,” he said. “These are more serious problems.”

Although religion is a prime reason to home-school in the United States, that’s often not the case elsewhere, according to a special issue on home schooling that the British journal Evaluation and Research in Education published last year. Paula Rothermel, a researcher at the school of education at the University of Durham in England, found only about 4 percent of the 412 British home-schooling families she surveyed said religion was a motive for home schooling. Nearly 31 percent cited disappointment with regular schools.

The special issue describes research on the modern home-schooling movement in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. In the last five to 10 years, the number of home-schooling families has increased dramatically in North America and in Great Britain and other countries, writes David Galloway, the journal’s acting editor, in the special issue.

Schooling in Secret 

The home-schooling movement in the United States—including the HSLDA—has helped pave the way.
Ms. Rothermel writes in reference to the United States: “The fact that home education already is acceptable in a large, wealthy, and culturally influential nation will lend the practice a good deal of initial legitimacy wherever it travels.”
That doesn’t seem to have helped yet in Germany, where, according to Thomas Spiegler, a researcher in the department of sociology at Philipps-University Marburg, home schooling remains illegal.

“Compulsory school attendance exists in Germany, and home schooling is not allowed,” he writes. Mr. Spiegler estimates that about 500 children are home-schooled in Germany “in secret, with tacit toleration by the local authorities or with legal consequences, ranging from a fine to partial loss of child custody, or even the possibility of a prison sentence.”
One leader of that country’s home-schooling movement is Richard Guenther, an evangelical Christian and the director of a legal-defense organization founded five years ago. Mr. Klicka organized American home schoolers to raise $100,000 for the organization, and he serves on its board.

“We are in quite a cultural war here in Germany,” Mr. Guenther said in an e-mail to Education Week last month. Our organization “has been very busy in the courts representing families who only want to apply their constitutional rights to educate their children at home, thus protecting them from the liberal agenda being foisted upon them by the government schools.”
Officials at the Germany Embassy in Washington defended their government’s position on home schooling. “The public has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different worldviews,” they said in a statement.

Mr. Klicka said that he and other American home-schooling parents can relate to what the German families are going through, and that’s what motivates them to want to help.
When he began working for the HSLDA, home schooling was legal in only five states, some parents who taught their children at home were fined, and government officials sometimes threatened to take their children away. The time: 1985.