Hi all,

Please forward this link to the petition page of the Swedish HS association. The petition page is in English.

The Swedish parliament is supposed to vote about this bill on 21 and 22 June, 2010. A YES to this bill will not only mean the virtual abolishment of homeschooling in Sweden (the law will essentially become German), but also an end to the freedom of education for private schools.

A million of NO’s from all of us over the world is now necessary!

http://rohus.nu/en/?English_information:Petition

Kind regards,
Peter van Zuidam

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.”

For Immediate Release
March 22, 2010

OTTAWA – A German homeschooling family is seeking asylum in Canada, and they are appearing before the Immigration and Refugee board in Alberta Tuesday to make their case to remain here.

Another German homeschooling family, seeking refuge in the United States, was recently granted permission to remain there. The law that these homeschoolers are being persecuted under is a 1938 piece of Nazi legislation. The law about compulsory school attendance from 1938 (Reichsschulpflichtgesetz) was the first general regulation in the German Reich without exceptions and with criminal consequences in case of contraventions (Habermalz, 2001: 218).

“Canada has a strong legacy of parental rights and home schooling has been an accepted expression of these rights in Canada,” notes Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin). The family has already been in Canada for a little while and the mother is reported as saying that her two sons are thriving in Alberta: “For us, it’s a gift, a real gift to be able to home-school our children.”

Parents have different reasons for choosing the homeschooling option. For these parents, the primary reasons were freedom of conscience and concerns about the medical well-being of their children, reports their lawyer, Jean Munn.

“I commend these valiant parents for the commitment and devotion they have to the best interests of their children,” said Vellacott.

“I hope the Immigration and Refugee Board in Albert gives a favourable hearing to this case,” he added.

(See more information about home-schooling in Germany here: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/201001260.asp)

For further comment, call 613-992-1966 or 613-297-2249

Friday, March 26, 2010

Brazilian Couple Receive Criminal Conviction for Homeschooling
Verdict given despite sons passing law school entrance exams — at ages 13 and 14

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL, March 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the fact that his children passed difficult government imposed tests, and even qualified for law school at the ages of 13 and 14, homeschooler Cleber Nunes and his wife Bernadeth have been slapped with fines equivalent to a total of $3,200 for refusing to submit their children to the Brazilian school system. However, Nunes told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he has no intention to pay the fine, although he says that he might have to spend 15-30 days in jail if he does not.

Although homeschooling is common in many countries, including the United States, and is associated with higher levels of academic achievement, it is completely prohibited in Brazil, the government of which has become increasingly intrusive in recent decades following the establishment of a socialist regime in the 1990s. Since Nunes began to homeschool his two oldest children four years ago, his family has been subject to repeated threats of fines, imprisonment, and loss of custody. However, he has resisted steadfastly, and his case has gained national attention.

The guilty verdict in the criminal case against Nunes, which follows two negative verdicts in a parallel civil case that ended over a year ago, was given despite
the fact that David and Jonatas Nunes had passed a difficult set of tests imposed by the criminal court.

“They had asked the kids to do the tests to check their level of knowledge, and also psychological tests to check their mental health,” Nunes told LifeSiteNews
(LSN). “It seems that the only valid result they expected was the failure of the kids.”

The tests imposed by the court on Nunes’ children were so difficult that one of the teachers who had designed it reportedly admitted that she herself could not pass it. However, David and Jonatas Nunes both passed the exams by margins of five and eight percentage points.

Despite his sons’ performance, however, the government has again ruled against Nunes, this time in criminal court, and ordered a fine.  The total amount in fines owed by Nunes as a result of the decisions against him has mounted to over $3,200 in U.S. dollars.

“If they impose tests it means that two possibilities should be considered. They could be suffering intellectual abandonment, or not,” Nunes told LSN. “In other words, they were trying to prove they were victims. But they passed and they kept saying we were criminal.”

Nunes says that despite his success, the judge ruled against him because of his style of home schooling, in which the children direct their own learning, with Nunes overseeing the process.

“The judge said we left the children to learn by themselves,” said Nunes.  ”He recognized that they passed the university entrance examination and the tests, but said that it was by their own efforts,” he added, calling that a “joke.” “They want to take control of them, of their minds”

Nunes says he has decided not to appeal the ruling, because Brazil’s Supreme Court has already refused to hear the appeal of his civil case. Although he has paid his wife’s fine to spare her jail time, he says he will not pay his own fine.

“The natural thing to do is appeal, but I don’t trust the Brazilian judges,” Nunes told LSN. “They already showed who they are and what they want. They are not interested in protecting our kids….They want to take control of them, of their minds, they want them out of their home.”

Although he has refused to comply with the rulings against him, Nunes currently faces no more legal difficulties stemming from the homeschooling of David and Jonatas, because they are now beyond the age of mandatory schooling.

However, his daughter could soon be subject to compulsory schooling in Brazil. She will soon turn four, the age at which compulsory schooling begins in Brazil.

Contact Information:
Cleber Nunes (he speaks English) can be contacted at cleber@andradenunes.org.

To contact the Brazilian Embassy:

Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: 202-238-2700
Fax: 202-238-2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org

Embassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: 613-237-1090 or 613-755-5160
Fax: 613-237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org

Embassies of Brazil to other Nations:
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html

Couple who fled to Tennessee fearing persecution for keeping their
children out of school win first case of its kind in US

A US judge has granted political asylum to a German family who said
they had fled the country to avoid persecution for home schooling their
children.

In the first reported case of its kind, Tennessee immigration judge
Lawrence Burman ruled that the family of seven have a legitimate fear of
prosecution for their beliefs. Germany requires parents to enroll their
children in school in most cases and has levied fines against those who
educate their children at home.

Christians Uwe Romeike, a piano teacher, and his wife, Hannelore, moved
to Morristown, Tennessee, in 2008 after German authorities fined them
thousands of euros for keeping their children out of school and sent
police to escort them to classes, Romeike said. They had been holding
classes in their home.

Along with thousands of torture victims, political dissidents, members
of religious minorities and other persecuted groups who win political
asylum every year, the Romeike family will now be free to live and work
in the US. The case does not create a legal precedent unless the US
government appeals and a higher immigration court hears the case.

“Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one
of the protected grounds under the asylum law,” said Mike Connelly,
attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, who argued the
case. “This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and
he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The
rights being violated here are basic human rights.”

In 2006 the Romeikes pulled their children out of a state school in
Bissingen, Germany, in protest of what they deemed an anti-Christian
curriculum.

They said textbooks presented ideas and language that conflicted with
their Christian beliefs, including slang terms for sex acts and images
of vampires and witches, while the school offered what they described as
ethics lessons from Islam, Buddhism and other religions. The eldest son
got into fights in school and the eldest daughter had trouble studying.

“I think it’s important for parents to have the freedom to chose the way
their children can be taught,” Romeike told the Associated Press.

About 1.5 million US children are taught at home. In Morristown, a town
of about 27,000, the Romeikes have connected with other home schooling
families, organising field trips and other activities.

The German consul general for the southeastern US said in a statement
that mandatory school attendance ensures a high education standard for
all children, adding that parents have many educational options.

In 2008, the US government received more than 47,000 applications for
political asylum and granted 10,743, including four from Germany.

Connelly said this was the first time home schooling had been the
central issue in a US political asylum case.

guardian.co.uk (c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

From Peter van Zuidam, NVvTO Secretary

The select committee of the English house of Commons on Education has given out a (so to say bipartisan) report on the bill introduced to impose supervision on home education in England. They have finally listened to most of the objections that were raised against the bill by English home educators and their organizations.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmchilsch/39/39i.pdf

See pages 5 and 6 for the summary.

From Roger Slack, Home Service

…In November 2008 Ed Balls, the UK’s Minister for Children, Schools and Families, commissioned a report on home education. The publication of the Badman Report in June immediately produced an outcry from home educators. It proposed compulsory registration renewed annually only with the approval of local authority officials who, on this side of the Atlantic, often know little about home education and are sometimes severely prejudiced against it. These same officials would be given power to interview home educated children without anyone else being present.

The management of the report was a travesty of democracy. Professor James Conroy, of Glasgow University, the only member of Mr Badman’s panel to have personal experience of home education: “In my 30 odd years of professional life in education I have rarely encountered a process, the entirety of which was so slap dash, panic driven, and nakedly and naively populist.” Its 28 recommendations were based on the wrong data, faulty evidence or in many cases no evidence at all. For example, it appears that none of the extensive and positive research from the USA was considered. I was amazed and ashamed to discover that such a report should be used to inform UK government policy. Many home educators believe Ed Balls had decided the recommendations before the report was written and Mr Badman knew it didn’t matter too much what he wrote. All he had to do was to fit a flimsy justification around them.

However, the minister has not had it all his own way. We have in the UK parliamentary select committees whose job is to scrutinise the work of government and they chose to look at the Badman report. I submitted to the committee some of the research (based on a list sent to me by Brian Ray) that could have been considered. Their conclusions, published last week, reveal they are not satisfied with the way the Badman Report was conducted nor with its handling of evidence and they disagree with almost all the major conclusions. Nevertheless the government ploughs on with Mr Badman’s draconian proposals.

We now know these proposals are due to be debated in the House of Commons on January the 11th. This is called the second reading of the bill. It is then due to go to the committee stage before it is sent to the House of Lords.

Please pray the Badman recommendations will either be rejected or will not complete their passage through parliament before the next general election, which must take place on or before June the 3rd. The UK has been a beacon of home education freedom in Europe. We want to keep it that way.

By Patrick B. Craine

LONDON, Ontario, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study released yesterday by the Canadian Centre for Home Education (CCHE) reveals that home-educated adults in Canada excel in all measured areas of adult life, including education level, religious observance, civic and community participation, life satisfaction, and income.

The study, entitled Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults, surveyed adults whose parents had responded to a 1994 study on home education.  In total, the researchers collected 226 questionnaires.  Ranging in age from 15 to 34, the respondents answered questions on a variety of topics for which Statistics Canada has comparable data from the wider population.

The results were astounding, says CCHE.

The study found that, when measured against the Canadian average, home-educated adults were more socially engaged and almost twice as likely to have voted in a federal election. Their average income was higher, with more self-reliant sources of income, such as investments and self-employment.  In fact, of all respondents, there were no cases of government support as the primary source of income.

The respondents were happier in their work and about their lives in general.  They also have more varied recreational pursuits.  The study notes, for example, that the respondents “were much more likely than the comparable population to have read books and attended concerts of classical music or theatrical performances.”  Overall, when reflecting on the value of being home-educated, most felt that it was an advantage in their adult life.

“In terms of income, education, entrepreneurial endeavours, involvement in their community, and all the other characteristics measured, home-educated adults not only excel, but also make meaningful contributions to their communities,” stated Paul Faris, president of CCHE.  “They are the type of neighbours we all want.”

The full study and a synopsis are available here.

Note: More details can also be found at this LifeSiteNews.com article: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09121108.html

The Salzkotten 8, Salzkotten, NorthRhineWestphalia, 10 December 2009

The attack against Christian families seeking to have some input into the
education their children receive in Germany is continuing. A number of
Russian-German  families in an elementary school in this community are
withholding their children from attending Sex education classes. They have
also withheld their children from participating in a theater play, My Body
Belongs to Me, that teaches the children how to engage in sex.

There are 8 families involved. Each father of these families will be sent to
prison. The father of the one family was the first. He has spent 7 days in
prison and will be released tomorrow.

The state has fined these families several times, and the fines continue to
accrue. This is not a normal punitive fine but rather a special fine called
Bussgeld  (literally called repentance money) that is designed to show
contrition for a wrong behavior on the part of the person being fined. The
time spent in prison does not count toward paying off the fine.

The Russian-German families refuse to pay their fines because by so doing
they  would admit their guilt of a wrong behavior. Prison is all about
forcing them to comply — first to pay their fines and second to comply
with compulsory school attendance, which includes attendance and
participation in all classes.

Schuzh and IHRG Attorneys Gabriele and Armin Eckermann are acting as these
families legal advisors.

Richard Guenther
European Director, IHRG

Additionally from Joel Thornton, President, IHRG:

This  type of persecution from German government officials against the
Salzkotten 8 shows how committed the German system is to punishing home
school families and others who do not comply with the compulsory education
laws, even when they are only removing their children from a single clearly
objectionable class.

Unlike American officials, German officials do not recognize the right of
parents to opt their children out of offensive classes such as sex education
which overrides the parents’ beliefs or desires for their own children.
One of  the reasons for this is that German officials view the children as
belonging to the State, particularly during the time they are in school.

The IHRG has decided to take a more radical approach to the situation in
Germany.  Early next year, January or February, we will be filing a civil
law suit on behalf of a number of home school families to try and force the
court to recognize the rights of parents to control the education of their
children.  We will not continue to only react to these forceful actions by
state officials against these families.

To my knowledge, this is the first time these families have been public
about the persecution they are facing.

Please pray for the Salzkotten 8 families in this time of persecution.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2009/November/Parents-Targeted-as-Europe-Cracks-Down-on-Home-Schooling/

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

We recently told you about the plight of the Johanssons, a Swedish family whose only child, 7-year-old Dominic Johansson, was seized by Swedish police from a plane just as the family was about to leave the country for a new life in India.

After investigating the facts surrounding the case, HSLDA President J. Michael Smith wrote to Swedish officials to protest this action.

Read his letter >>
Read the response from Mr. Berglind, minister of public affairs for the Swedish Embassy in Washington >>

Citing confidentiality concerns for not commenting on the Johansson case, Mr. Stigland noted that a county administrative board in Sweden is reviewing how it was handled by local officials.

In a telephone conversation with HSLDA, Mr. Johansson confirmed that he has been in contact with the county administrative board.

“They told me that they are looking into the case to determine if anything was done improperly,” he said.

And at a meeting with the social workers on Tuesday, October 6, Mr. Johansson was told that he and his wife would only be allowed to visit their son at the social workers office once every two weeks for a maximum of two hours.

What does Sweden hope to gain from such an aggressive action? The situation is tragic. It is deeply troubling that a Western democracy would go to such lengths to prevent a homeschool family from simply trying to leave the country.

Dominic has been traumatized, and his mother has been hospitalized several times because of the depression this incident has caused. Yet the social workers persist in keeping custody of Dominic. When Mr. Johansson asks why, they reply “Because it’s better for him.” According to Mr. Johansson, both he and Dominic have been subjected to psychological and other testing with results showing no valid reason for continued separation of the family.

In light of this aggressive behavior and because the Swedish parliament is poised to impose draconian regulations on homeschoolers, HSLDA is asking its members to contact the Swedish Ambassador to the United States.

Swedish Ambassador Jonas Hafström can be reached:

By email: ambassaden.washington@foreign.ministry.se
By phone: 202-467 2600
By fax: 202-467 2699

Visit Swedish embassy website >>

First, we ask you to request that the Swedish government return Dominic to his family. The social welfare agency has taken custody of Dominic, and they have the power to return him to his parents. Request that they do so immediately.

Second, inform the ambassador that homeschooling allows children to thrive academically and socially. Valid research has demonstrated that homeschooling is a mainstream educational approach that works. Tell him that the world doesn’t need any more countries like Germany that repress freedom in education, and that a person should be permitted to opt out of public education because of philosophical or religious convictions.

In his letter to Mr. Smith, Mr. Stigland noted that since Sweden is a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the starting point for children is Sweden is the “…best interests of the child and the child’s right to be heard….” Mr. Stigland noted that social services have an obligation to “intervene and remove a child from the family if the child’s health and development are endangered.” Mr. Stigland noted that a child should be returned home as soon as possible if it was “in the best interests of the child.”

Of grave concern to HSLDA is Mr. Stigland’s citation of the legislative history of the Education Act which says: “The legislative history of the current Education Act states that home schooling in isolated cases, mainly in the lower grades, might be an acceptable substitute for education if a particular external circumstance exists. Examples of such are: if the child lives in a sparsely populated area or needs special care. Legal practice shows that the situation also arises when parents for other reasons, such as philosophical or religious, want to educate their children at home. In connection with the new Education Act, these rules are now being reviewed.”

The act is indeed being reviewed and the proposal is even more draconian. The proposed language would remove philosophical or religious convictions as valid reasons to home school. The new law would allow homeschooling only in “extraordinary circumstances” (read: never). If the proposed Swedish law passes it would become as bad as in Germany where homeschooling is effectively banned.

Mike Farris recently said in his address to the World Congress of Families, “Any nation that severely restricts the ability of parents to choose alternative forms of education, including home education, in the name of creating national unity, cannot call itself a free nation. Freedom necessarily requires the individual to have the liberty to think differently and believe differently than programs instituted by the current rulers of any nation. Educational freedom is the cornerstone for all freedom of thought and conscience.”

HSLDA encourages its members to communicate their concerns to the Swedish Ambassador. We hope that his influence may help correct an injustice and also pave the way for better laws for homeschoolers in Sweden

HSLDA thanks its members and friends for their ongoing support. It’s when all homeschoolers join together that we are most effective advocating for homeschool freedom in America and abroad.

Read the HSLDA article: “Sweden—the Next Germany for Homeschoolers?”