Here are (finally) my promised show notes. The show is available for download here: Home School Talk. I realized two thing during the show. I need to do a better job at preparing more stories than I could possibly cover and preparing for the fact that it will probably be awhile before many people call in. But that is neither here nor there.

The biggest story is probably last week’s decision by a lower court regarding the Long case. The court terminated its jurisdiction over the Long family, leaving many homeschool advocates hopeful this would moot the case before the appeals court. The article I quoted comes from the LA Times.

“It should mean the whole thing goes away,” said Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Assn. “I’m very optimistic for the long haul. I don’t see how in the world this case could be upheld. That [dismissal] absolutely bolsters my optimism greatly.”

But not everyone agrees.

Edward Steinman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said he does not believe that the family court dismissal undermines the ruling, but it could provide easy political cover if the appellate court wants to get out of the spotlight.

“I don’t think it moots the case. I think it’s two separate issues,” he said. “The family court issue is the one that triggered [the ruling], but family court is not the one that made” the ruling.

“It should have no effect,” he said. “But it became a political football, and the [appellate] court may use this to say ‘let’s just punt.’ “

I also mentioned Tammy Takahashi’s blog, Just Enough And Nothing More, as a good source for information on the case. She notes that the statewide groups have not yet issued a formal statement.

Right now, the three state-wide homeschooling groups are remaining quiet. In an unofficial email sent out to one of the groups, it was made clear that the reason that they are quiet, is because they cannot be certain what this means for the case, despite Mike Farris’ confidence. Just as with everything that has happened thus far, there are many possible outcomes. CA Juvenile Court Drops out of Homeschooling Case

I also mention the change to New Hampshire’s homeschool law (discussed at more length here). As well as HSLDA’s Op-Ed piece that appeared in the Washington Times. When I wrote about this yesterday, I focused more on who the “real” pioneers of the homeschool movement may have been with a not-so-positive treatment of the man who probably did the most to make Nebraska’s law what it is today. Stephanie of Throwing Marshmallows also shared some links in the comments from an article connecting the growth of homeschooling in her state with resistance to racial integration. I can’t say just how much of an impact this subset of homeschoolers had, but it makes sense that these kinds of groups would have stood their ground longer, despite the rising cost to their families in both fines and jail time. I address this in the show, although at that point I was realizing that I had gone through my prepared notes faster than planned so began to ramble a bit. But I also went into more detail about someone who was very influential in the homeschool movement who was left out: R. J. Rushdoony. Since he has had a significant impact on HSLDA, the omission seems curious, but he was not nearly as public as Holt and Moore, who are featured in the original piece.

At about 1:30, Carol Topp, the Homeschool CPA, called in to discuss her book Homeschool Co-ops. She provides a lot of information about co-ops, both the advantages and disadvantages and also how co-ops can protect themselves from theft and file for tax-exempt or nonprofit status. During the interview, she mentions two websites:

Top School Fundraisers

Fundraisingmom.com

This is about halfway into the show so it is pretty easy to skip to the interview, if you are more interested in hearing her experience with homeschool co-ops. She also makes a sample chapter available through her website, if you are interested.

homeschool homeschooling home education re rachel L homeschool co-ops homeschool pioneers