School Voucher Advocates Plan a Multistate Legal Battle
WASHINGTON--A legal group that played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court case upholding private school vouchers is taking the stage for its second act.
The Institute for Justice has already filed lawsuits in Maine and Washington state seeking to remove state constitutional roadblocks to school choice programs.
The institute's lawyers recently held a press briefing to outline a strategy for filing other school choice cases around the country. The ultimate goal: a return to the Supreme Court.
"The rule of law we are seeking to establish in these cases is that a state cannot discriminate against religious school options," said Clint Bolick, a vice president of the institute who was the architect of a decade-long legal strategy that led to the high court's ruling upholding vouchers under the U.S. Constitution. In its June decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the justices held that the inclusion of religious schools in the Cleveland voucher program was not an unconstitutional establishment of religion under the First Amendment.
In the institute's view, state barriers should not prevent the inclusion of religious schools in any choice program. It argues that parents have several grounds under the U.S. Constitution for seeking to open choice programs to religious schools. These include the First Amendment's guarantees of free speech and free exercise of religion and the 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
| SAGINAW, Mich. - A 14-year-old girl faces charges after she brought a steak knife to Saginaw Public High School and stabbed another student at the school on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 over a pair of contact lenses. | In response to the stabbing, and another recent incident where a student pulled a gun on a fellow student, the district is looking for ways to make schools safer. | Superintendent Gerald Dawkins has established an Action Line for parents and students to call with their concerns. Many parents may choose home-schooling as a safe alternative. |
School voucher program is constitutional
Cleveland’s school voucher program is constitutional, so the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision in June, 2002. The decision overturned an earlier appeals court ruling that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibited the program, which gives low-income parents publicly funded vouchers of $2,250 to help them send their children to a school of their choice. Since the vouchers were issued to the parents instead of directly to the schools, the Supreme Court held that the choice resided with the parent and not the government. The decision clears the way for other cities and states to try similar school choice programs.
Michigan schools failed to meet the state’s academic standards
According to a recent federal report, over 1,500 Michigan schools failed to meet the state’s academic standards, more than in any other state. Current guidelines state that annual, school-wide student scores should improve by at least 10 percent each on math, reading, science, and writing MEAP tests. Failure to improve in any of the four areas results in a substandard rating. The 1,500 schools are those that have failed to meet this standard for at least two years in a row.
Muslim Home School Grows to Become Muhammad University of Islam
DETROIT--On February 4, 2002, our Home School became Muhammad University of Islam. We no longer hold school activities in our basement where we started in 1994. We have "graduated" to the second floor of the Inner City Sub Center, located at 8411 Forest Ave, Detroit, MI. Our school hours are 10AM-1PM Monday through Friday. At this time we can accomodate students from preschool to sixth grade. All Believers in Messenger Elijah Muhammad Teachings are welcomed and encouraged to enroll their children (Free of Charge), provided that at least one parent will donate his or her time during those hours to help in the school as an instructor, teacher, teacher aide or other necessary position. Our children are taught, math, reading, penmanship, history, Islam (as taught by Messenger Elijah Muhammad), science, typing, and art. Fridays are used as "Activity Days, wherein we do special crafts, receive special guests, or go on field trips. For information call (313) 371-7033 or Email us at education@muhammadspeaks.com.
Muhammad University of Islam National Yearbook
We would like to invite all Nation of Islam schools (HOMESCHOOLS ESPECIALLY) to unite with us to produce a National Yearbook wherein all of our children will be showcased together. Begin now photographing all projects, trips, etc. for the upcoming yearbook. We want to make this Coming Year (2003) "The Year The Nation United". The Yearbook will be made available February, 2004. And will showcase events and activities that take place from October 7, 2002 until October 7, 2003. Please call us at (313) 371-7033 for more information.
| MICHIGAN-While home schooling has become a familiar feature of
the national educational landscape over the past several decades, it still
meets with a substantial amount of persecution and harassment, according
to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Recent years have seen
a number of instances in which Michigan home schoolers were harassed by public
school administrators, local police, and even other families in their
neighborhoods or communities.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates that between 700,000 and 1.25 million children are currently home schooled in the United States. The Michigan State Department of Education says almost 2,000 home schoolers reported to the state last year, a figure that is almost certainly low given the NCES figures. Government figures on home school families are questionable because of the way they are reported. Michigan law allows parents two options: to operate as a “nonpublic school” and submit enrollment figures every year, or to operate a home-school education program without reporting to the state. Therefore, the actual number of home school families is likely much higher than state estimates. Michael Smith, president of the HSLDA, says that a perceived loss of money is why public school officials consider home schooling to “threaten the very existence of public education.” Local school districts lose $6,700 for each student who leaves to be home schooled. On the other hand, home school students save the state of Michigan money, since they pay taxes earmarked for education, yet they do not send their children to public school. If 2,000 home schooled children in Michigan enrolled in public school this fall, the state would be obligated to pay $13.4 million more per year, or the basic state foundation grant of $6,700 for each student to the local school districts. Smith believes that it is a mistake to underestimate the level of animosity home schooling inspires among some public school advocates. The following incidents, reported by the HSLDA, have been substantiated in police and news reports—but because many families fear further harassment, the parties involved will not be named.In the fall of 2001, the district attorney for Grand Traverse County threatened a Traverse City family with legal action after they withdrew their children from public school. Communication from the attorney stated that it was evident the family was not teaching according to the state’s requirements. Later that year, the same family was visited by a police officer who insisted
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that the family show him their curriculum. The family refused. The officer warned the parents that he would seek an arrest warrant, and that they would have to serve 90 days in jail if they continued to disobey the district attorney. The HSLDA told the district attorney in writing that this behavior was a violation of the family’s rights, and he subsequently dropped the case. A similar incident occurred in Allegan County last September when a police officer arrived at a home schooling family’s residence, demanding to see the curriculum. The mother provided the officer with a copy, which he deemed to be “fine.” Nonetheless, the officer reprimanded the mother for not being qualified to teach, to which the mother correctly responded that home schooling parents do not have to be state-certified. The officer replied that during the previous year, the county had arrested “all kinds of home schoolers.” The officer left after warning the mother that he would seek an arrest warrant. An exceptional case is that of a home schooled girl in Hanover who checked her mailbox last year and found a packet of letters from third graders at her local public school. The letters described what public school was like and expressed sympathy for the girl because she lacked classmates and a traditional school setting. It was later discovered that the students had been instructed by their teacher to write the letters in order to leave a negative impression of home schooling on her students. According to the HSLDA, this sort of harassment occurs in all states whether home school regulations are absent or extremely restrictive. The HSLDA considers Michigan to be a very low regulation state because the state has a strong parental rights law . “It is the natural, fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and education of their children,” according to the Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated (MCLA) Section 380.10. Other states require high levels of regulations that must be followed prior to home schooling children. Tennessee, for example, requires parents to notify the school district if they want to withdraw their children from public schools. When a school bus driver in Washington County went to obtain the necessary forms from her supervisor, he became angry at her decision. The next day, she received a notice informing her that she had been fired, giving no reason for her termination. The HSLDA filed a lawsuit against the county and the woman received $16,500 as settlement for unlawful termination.
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California has between four and six high-profile home school harassment
cases each year, according to Cathy Cuthbert, editor of The School Liberator,
an online newsletter. A school district in San Leandro, for example, decided
it would begin to consider homeschooled children as truant—and began
investigating all home schooling families in that area on the basis of this
unwritten district policy.
The Hayward (Calif.) Daily Review reported in February 2000 that one home schooling mother in San Leandro was visited by a police officer who pepper-sprayed and arrested her in front of her daughter. Following the incident, the woman’s family left town, Cuthbert says, and neither the Daily Review nor the California Homeschool Network has been able to find the family. Besides the threats and harassment home school families face, they also cope with criticisms of home schooling teaching practices. For example, David Stewart, director of Hillsdale College’s honors program, told the Detroit Free Press that home schooled children are typically deficient in science education. “I can generally count on them for having almost no science and virtually no lab science,” he notes. The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest school employee union, believes that these educational deficiencies stem from a lack of professional training on the part of the home school parent/teacher. NEA spokesman Charles Erickson told ABC News that teaching is “just like any other profession—you want to get someone who’s been taught to do it, so everyone has the same opportunity to learn under a qualified professional.” Nevertheless, despite these threats and harassment, home schooling continues to thrive. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, it is currently growing across the nation at rates of anywhere from 7 to 15 percent per year.
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