Two decades ago, what did parents do when homeschooling was illegal in their state? In California, they kept right on homeschooling. Listen to the rest of the story on today’s Home School Heartbeat, with HSLDA President Mike Smith and Senior Counsel Christopher Klicka.
Mike Smith:
Chris, we fought a long battle to make homeschooling legal in California. Let’s share some of the details of that with our listeners, Chris.
Christopher Klicka:
Well, California has always been a big state for homeschooling. However, homeschoolers were told by the department of education that they had to be certified tutors. Most homeschoolers weren’t. Mike, you remember California—you spent many hours and days fighting for homeschoolers’ rights there.
Mike:
I sure do.
Chris:
The Darrah and Black family were two families who believed that God had called them to teach their children at home. They were taken to court because they weren’t certified tutors. The court ended up saying that the case needed to be dismissed because it was unconstitutionally void for vagueness, because a homeschool could be a private school. After that, we were able to use that small municipal court decision to show other courts all across California and convince them not to prosecute the families.
Mike:
Chris, that truly was a miracle in California, and thank you for sharing that. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.
