This article, by Roy Hanson, director of Family Protection Ministries, appeared in The Home School Court Report, vol. xviii, No. 1, January/February 2002. It warns of a specific issue involving government encroachment that home educators should take seriously. But what is even more troubling, charter schools are only one concern among a growing number of similar political and social issues that ought to be a wake up call to Christians. I have written a short essay, "The Hijacking of Homeschooling," that briefly addresses these problems.—PD
In California and across the nation, we are alarmed by the growing number of Christian home schoolers who are enrolling in charter school programs. Below is a summary of most of the reasons why we are concerned. This is based upon my full-time research and advocacy work in behalf of private home educators in California for the last 15 years.
The battle over home schooling in America for the last 20 years has been shifting from eradication of home education to growing attempts to control home educators and recapture them for public school programs (such as charter schools) where they are under the authority and supervision of public school officials. Nothing less than the future of home schooling and the freedom of parents to train their own children in God’s ways are at stake.