U.S. Immigration Opposes Asylum Decision
From HSLDA
In a deeply disturbing notice, the United States Government Agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged an appeal of Judge Lawrence Burman’s grant of asylum to the Romeike family. The appeal was sent to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 25. In it, the ICE called homeschoolers too “amorphous” to be a “particular social group” and that “United States law has recognized the broad power of the state to compel school attendance and regulate curriculum and teacher certification” as well as the “authority to prohibit or regulate homeschooling.”
On January 26, Judge Burman granted the Romeikes asylum after determining that the German government’s treatment of homeschoolers was “repellent to everything we believe as Americans,” and that Germany was denying the family “basic human rights.” The judge determined that the German state’s policy of imposing increasing and potentially crushing fines, the loss of custody of children, and possible criminal prosecution over homeschooling amounted to persecution. However, ICE pointed to the denial of an application in the European Court of Human Rights in the Konrad case as evidence that “the public education laws of Germany do not violate basic human rights.” ICE criticized Judge Burman for “improvidently disregard[ing]” the decision of the ECHR. In other words, it appears that ICE is arguing that U.S. judges should follow international law—rather than U.S. law.
Michael Smith, president of HSLDA, says that American courts should only rely on American law.
“American judges should use American law alone in making decisions about cases in American courts,” Smith said. “Polls show that Americans by an overwhelming margin reject the idea of using international law in American courts to decide American cases. The use of international law in American courts is a threat to American justice and should be opposed.”
In its appeal, ICE argues that the U.S. government has the authority to simply prohibit homeschooling, and this should disqualify the granting of asylum. ICE further asserts that Germany’s harsh treatment of homeschoolers is mere prosecution, not persecution. ICE lawyers wrote that “[e]ven were such fear[s] objectively reasonable, these sanctions would only amount to prosecution.” ICE argues that the judge’s ruling is “speculative” because sanctions had been applied in a “limited number of circumstances” and that the Romeikes had failed to “make any effort to locate an acceptable alternative school.” These claims were fully argued in the first Romeike hearing and shown to be false. ICE also noted parenthetically that the “Immigration Judge did not address how under various state laws of the United States a person can be similarly prosecuted for not sending one’s children to school.”
HSLDA Staff Attorney and Director of International Relations Michael Donnelly, who will continue to coordinate the Romeike family’s legal defense in this case, said he was not surprised by the actions of ICE or the arguments they presented.
“It is disappointing but not surprising that ICE has appealed,” Donnelly said. “Judge Burman appropriately noted that homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, and his decision reflects U.S. law which upholds the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing their children as an enduring American tradition, entitling the family to protection from persecution. ICE argues that Germany’s denial of a parent’s right to homeschool for any reason is acceptable. It is shameful that ICE, and by extension the U.S. Government, supports the persecution of German homeschoolers.”
Blog @ April 28, 2010 | International Homeschooling | Comments (0)
Homeschooling Numbers on the Rise in Fairfax County
Note: This article shares about the growing popularity of homeschooling in Fairfax County. It also refers to some of the changes that have come to homeschooling. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9IuJ2vQT_I for more of homeschooling’s history.) The requirements the article mentions for homeschooling are for the homeschool statute–for an overview of all the available options, see www.heav.org/law/flow1.html.
From the Fairfax County Times. Wednesday, March 31, 2010. Reprinted with permission.
Home schooling numbers on the rise in Fairfax County
Networking, flexibility make option more attractive for Fairfax parents
by Holly Hobbs | Staff Writer
Fairfax County parents are increasingly turning to home schooling as an alternative to public schools for their children.
Since 2005, the number of students learning at home in the county has grown 23 percent, said Lori Hershey of the Department of Special Services. This is compared with a 6.5 percent rise in public school enrollment during the same time, also recorded by the school system.
The reason for the increase is that home-based instruction has become easier, more acceptable and attractive in Fairfax County, local parents of home-schooled children said.
“These numbers don’t surprise me,” said Janice Lum, whose eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son are two of 2,330 students being educated at home in Fairfax County. This is the family’s first year of home schooling.
“The area is becoming increasingly congested; some people are no longer satisfied with the system in general, including the financial decisions impacting the classroom setting,” Lum said. Lum also attributes the popularity to a growing body of knowledge about effective home schooling and “general myth-busting that is occurring within society.”
Like many area home-schooling parents, Lum belongs to a network of families holding classes at home, chatting online about lesson plans and meeting for group classes. Thanks in part to these networks, the days of spending lessons glued to the kitchen table are gone, parents said.
The educational opportunities available to children during school hours could fill weeks, said Mary Sutton, who home schools her eight- and nine-year-old daughters. She and her daughters take art classes, piano lessons, gymnastics, and more, Sutton said.
“The hardest part of home schooling is managing to stay at home and do school,” she added.
The flexibility of holding classes when and where they wish is one benefit of home schooling, parents said. But one drawback is that her daughter misses school, Lum said.
“She sees her friends and is still actively involved in school activities, but she would enjoy and prefer to be with her friends all day long,” she said. “This has been hard for me and has weighed heavily on me.”
Parents who home school their children must register the child through the Fairfax County Public School system each year and are required to submit an annual progress report to the system showing–through standardized test or composite score–that the child has progressed and is on track. At a minimum, the parent must hold a high school diploma.
Lum is a non-practicing registered nurse with a master’s degree in theology. Sutton holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and geophysics and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Both mothers said they were not home-schooled and that they struggled with the decision to home school their children.
“I never wanted to home school,” said Lum, adding that she toyed with the idea for three years before deciding to “bite the bullet.”
“In a nutshell … it had just gotten to the point where [my daughter] wasn’t learning enough of what we wanted and too much of what we didn’t,” she said.
Kathy Kuhl, who helps run a science and biology lab program for the parent group, Centreville Homeschool Enrichment Support Services, began home schooling her son in fourth grade after a learning disability began interfering with his classwork.
“My son is bright, highly distractible, and dyslexic,” Kuhl said. “He was coming home from school emotionally exhausted and was starting to think he was stupid.”
What started as tutoring during the summer and spring break became home schooling, she said, adding that her son is now a student at Northern Virginia Community College.
Colleges are seeking home-instructed students because of the quality of education they get at home, parents said.
Local colleges and universities have seen a boom in the number of home-schooled applicants.
George Mason University has seen a steep increase in the applications from home-schooled students, from 38 in 2008 to 66 in 2010, said Dean of Admissions Andrew Flagel. Admission numbers are up in general this year, he said.
“But the applications from home-schooled students, while a smaller percentage of the total, have clearly grown at an even faster rate,” he said.
Home-instructed students are accepted at a slightly higher rate than public or private school students, Flagel said.
Officials from several state universities said their schools do not track the success rates of home-instructed students once they enter college.
Blog @ April 28, 2010 | General | Comments (0)
Free Homeschool Q&A Workshops at Barnes & Noble
HEAV has arranged to offer Homeschool Q&A workshops at select Barnes & Noble stores next week as part of their Educator Appreciation Week being held April 10 through April 18 (see this Update item for details). Come listen to a brief overview of homeschooling in Virginia, then ask questions of homeschool veterans. Invite new homeschoolers or those interested in home education to stop by!
Visit the children’s department in these stores:
Lynchburg – Wednesday, April 14 at 10:30 a.m.
4024-C Wards Road · 434-239-8688
Christiansburg – Monday, April 12, at 11 a.m.
110 Conston Avenue · 540-381-4923
Richmond – Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m.
5501 West Broad Street · 804-282-0781
Glen Allen – Monday, April 12, at 11 a.m.
Creeks at the Virginia Center · 9850 Brook Road · 804-264-6850
Midlothian – Wednesday, April 14, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
11500 Midlothian Turnpike · 804-794-6640
Charlottesville – Monday, April 12, at 10:30 a.m.
1035 Emmet Street, Suite A · 434-984-0461
Virginia Beach – Thursday, April 15, at 10:30 a.m.
4485 Virginia Beach Boulevard · 757-671-2331
Reston – Wednesday, April 14, at 10 a.m.
1851 Fountain Drive · 703-437-9490
Manassas – Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m.
8117 Sudley Road · 703-393-0910
Blog @ April 9, 2010 | Events | Comments (0)