A Vote for Leonard Martin is a Vote Against Homeschooling!
On June 8th, California voters will elect a new Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Michelle Huelle, the San Bernardino County Contact for the California Homeschool Network (CHN) sent a query letter to all of the candidates asking for their position on homeschooling. She is posting the candidates’ responses on CHN’s Yahoo List. Michelle provided permission for people to reprint/repost the responses
she has received. (I’ve posted them below.)
One candidate, Leonard Martin, is OPPOSED to homeschooling and stands out as SERIOUSLY IGNORANT about it. His INSULTING RESPONSE was among those she received. Here it is…
Home schooling’s appropriate for children who have special difficulties that make it impossible for them to participate in traditional schooling. But under California law, a parent has the right to home school provided the parent is qualified to offer instruction.
Personally, I believe nearly all kids would benefit more from being in traditional schools. Many parents home school for religious reasons, because they still hold outdated views on race or ethnicity, or for what they consider to be moral reasons.
Since we have provisions for students to attend a school outside of their local community when there are legitimate reasons to do so, home schooling as an alternative to “unsafe” campuses is hardly a legitimate alternative. For the most part – overwhelmingly – the public schools of California are not only safe but are providing a high quality education. Yucca Valley should be no exception. If it is, as Superintendent I would like to hear the complaints.
There has also been a tremendous amount of fraud connected with home schooling. Corporate organizations have sprung up to drain precious taxpayer dollars from the state budget to “supervise” home schooling. That has been to the detriment of those children, who by necessity, must be home schooled.
My advice? Send the kids to a traditional public school.
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=353608
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/17/BA1J1DF1CR.DTLFaceBook Profile:
http://www.facebook.com/Best Regards,
Leonard J. Martin
Home (661) 297-4815
Cell (661) 400-0059
Another Homeschool mom caught wind of Martin’s response and blogged about it. http://enchantedmusing.wordpress.com/ She decided to contact him and offered to provide more information about homeschooling.
Here is his response:
I did not expect any home schooler to be satisfied with my response. Nor will I change it to appeal to the thousands of home schoolers who are voters. If this election were in the 1950s I would have received a question from someone representing tens of thousands of parents who opposed the racial integration of our public schools. They would have been looking for a candidate who agreed with them.
My response would have turned them off and they would have urged me to read all the arguments in favor of segregation. I know those arguments, as I know the arguments for home schooling. Now, I’m not equating home schoolers with segregationists, but the situation is the same. As I would not edit my response to the segregationists to win their votes, I will not shape my response to home schoolers to seek their votes either.
I explained before that there are legitimate reasons for home schooling. If you meet those conditions, I fully support home schooling. But that is not why most home schoolers engage in it. And while they have a legal right to do so, I do not support home schooling in those situations.
Best Regards,
Leonard J. Martin
I was astonished by his reply! Since the candidate provided his phone number, my husband decided to call him today, May 24th. Martin answered the phone. My husband identified himself, explained that he is a CA voter, and told the candidate that he’s misinformed on homeschooling and will not be voting for him. Mr Martin was confused and wondered how we had gotten his number. He didn’t seem to understand what a firestorm his comments will ignite among California homeschoolers.
Some of you may not remember California’s position on homeschooling under Delaine Eastin’s watch – but that’s a time I wouldn’t care to revisit. Jack O’Connell was a welcome change. A vote for Leonard Martin is a vote against homeschooling.
This is an important election – I hope everyone gets out there and votes to support homeschooling!
Here are the other candidates positions on homeschooling:
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Karen Blake “I fully support home schooling.” 5/20/2010
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“I believe home schooling is the right of a parent. I believe some parents do the job well, while others do not. If you chose to home school your children through the K-12 years or to only do it through a certain
grade level, I hope you do the job well enough to allow your children to continue their education and work well with other members of the community with whom they will be associating.”Grant McMicken
Candidate for SSPI
(916) 792-5970
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From Henry Williams Jr.
Hi Michelle,My wife and I homeschooled in the Bay Area for 12 years. We intimately understand why parents homeschool their children. I will see to it that homeschoolers are protected while in office.
Sending you an attachment so you have a better idea of our campaign. Take time to view the links too.
Thanks for asking–
Henry
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Dear Ms. Huelle,
I support and encourage families who privately homeschool their children. As long as the parent(s) have sufficient education, they should be left alone by government to teach their own children. If anything, government could and should do more to support homeschooling parents in their efforts, by providing teaching materials and other educational support requested by parents in order to be the best homeschoolers they can be! If elected I will educate myself to learn as much as I can about the homeschooling movement and the laws pertaining to it in California.
Thank you for asking me.
Best wishes,
Dan Nusbaum
www.danielnusbaum.com
While all of the above are true facts, remember that you need to, as a parent, understand that this is the right choice. Choosing free homeschool could be the best thing that can happen to your child and you can read up on many reviews that will showcase this by and large.
Moreover, what you also need to understand is that there are other parents just like you wondering about free homeschool. What you need to do is to reach out to them and then see what their viewpoint is. There is strength in numbers and latching onto parents who are also in the same boat will help you in the long term as well when it comes to making a decision of sorts. Remember not to be cowed down by perception but to see it for what it is.