CHOIS Connection is published quarterly by Christian Homeschoolers Of Idaho State.
This article appeared in a previous issue.
CHOIS Connection
Resource Review
by Suzanne Reid
"HomeSchool Heroes
The Struggle & Triumph of Home Schooling in America"
Winter 2006
In tracing the history of homeschooling over the past twenty years, Chris Klicka characterizes the journey as a trail of blessings. All along the path God is personally meeting homeschoolers, performing miracles and protecting their freedom to homeschool.
Throughout the Old Testament, when God revealed Himself to His people, He commanded them to build an altar to Himself, where the Israelites would stop, worship Him, and tell of His deeds to one another and to their children. This was important to God and important for the Israelites in order to maintain their souls and to prosper. In Deuteronomy 4:9, He commands the people, "Give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons."
In his book, HomeSchool Heroes, Chris Klicka, senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), does just that -- he makes known these stories, in which he has seen the hand of the Lord provide for His homeschoolers. In each account, Klicka reveals the glory of God, mightily striking down principalities and powers in the offices of school superintendents, judges, and legislative bureaucrats.
Chris begins the story by introducing the reader to HSLDA and its visionary leaders. In the early 1980s, when parents were pulling their children out of the public schools and facing hostile legal treatment and persecution around the country, God moved on the hearts of a few attorneys, namely Michael Farris, of Washington state, and Michael Smith, of California. By 1983, the Home School Legal Defense Association had incorporated to defend homeschoolers throughout the United States. In 1985, while still studying for the bar exam, Chris Klicka joined the struggling HSLDA; soon Chris was thrown into the courts, where he began to encounter things he had never studied in law school.
One such example he shares is a retelling of the Robin Diegel case in Ohio. The day before the trial, Mike flew out to Ohio and prepared for the trial with Mrs. Diegel at her picnic table. While working with her, he shared the gospel, and she prayed to receive Christ. He left her with the thought that God was going to do some miracle to welcome her into His family. The next day, as the trial commenced, the judge called the lawyers into his chambers and said, "Mr. Farris, I just read the Schmidt decision from the Supreme Court of Ohio. You lost that case; you're going to lose this case again today."
Facing that threat, Mr. Farris valiantly returned to the courtroom. When it was his turn to cross-examine the superintendent, Farris asked a question that surprised even himself, "Did you get any legal advice before you decided to turn this lady down in her right to homeschool?" As the cross-examination proceeded, the superintendent revealed that he had disclosed the entire case to the very judge before whom the case was being tried. Farris recounts, "The one question that was the chink in their armor jumped into my head out of the blue." That very day he realized, "I know who is really the Advocate here. It's not us; it's God. That is the story of HSLDA -- that God is our Advocate, and we are just the conduits."
This is just one of many similar cases. Since the early eighties HSLDA has been engaged in an all-out battle to defend our basic Constitutional freedoms. Klicka says, "if those early homeschoolers had lost, the Christian schools would be lost; and, ultimately, the family would be lost." He warns us that we must remember these individual battles that God has won on our behalf and tell them to our children, so that we don't take our freedoms casually.
These freedoms were not won easily. Many homeschoolers have endured public ridicule and incarceration. Klicka devotes a whole chapter to stories about homeschool parents who were treated as criminals, such as a single mom who was arrested, fingerprinted, booked with mug shots, and summoned to court. The most shocking story was about a six-year old, whom police officers almost arrested and carted away for truancy, due to a clerical error of a court clerk. By the grace of God, Chris Klicka was able to resolve the situation over the phone. He thankfully reports that in all the history of HSLDA, they have never had a child taken away from a homeschool parent, nor had a homeschool close down because the family was homeschooling.
The opposition is relentless warns Klicka, because the real issue is not about whether a family's children are being educated. Instead, it is about who has the authority to dictate what and how our children are to be educated–the parents or the public school authorities. It doesn't seem to matter that studies confirm that homeschool children outperform "their counterparts in the public schools thirty to thirty-seven percentile points in all subjects." Klicka says, "as long as the public schools have authority over homeschools and there are compulsory attendance laws in all fifty states, there are going to be attempts in the legislature to 'turn back the clock.'"
Homeschoolers have made a difference, Klicka reminds us. He tells about the famous HR6 battle, where God used homeschoolers to confound and defeat the spiritual powers of the day. In 1994, Congressman George Miller (D-CA) introduced an amendment to HR6, an omnibus education reappropriations bill that would require every teacher in all schools, including homeschools, to be certified to teach in the subject or area in which he or she was teaching. Through the legal work and alerts of HSLDA and the lobbying work of homeschoolers across the nation, everyone was talking about it. The media picked up the story, and D.C. was abuzz with the commotion homeschoolers were making on Capitol Hill. By God's grace, the amendment went down in flames with a vote of 424 to 1, with Miller casting the one "yes" vote. Never had the Congress received so many phone calls; AT&T estimated one to one-and-a-half million calls in eight days. Homeschoolers broke all previous records, and "God graciously allowed the homeschool movement to come into a position of influence on Capitol Hill."
In his chapter, "Invasion of the Social Workers," Chris recounts several stories of social worker abuse but reminds us that parents still have certain rights protected by the U.S. Constitution under the Fourth Amendment. For example, a social worker is not allowed to enter a home on a mere anonymous tip, but he must have probable cause, and a search warrant signed by a judge. In spite of those truths, "homeschoolers are at risk," says Klicka because social workers are trained with a philosophy that is anti-parent, anti-family and anti-religious. Child welfare agencies assume that the family is guilty until proven innocent, and social workers have admitted to Klicka that they have been taught to use intimidation to get their way.
Realizing these inherent problems with the system, Klicka went to work on changing federal laws that apply to social workers. Klicka presented five amendments to be added to the Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act. Two amendments were actually adopted, and passed by the House and the Senate, and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003. Klicka helped author two provisions of the law that apply to all fifty states. The first provision is that child protective service workers must be trained "to protect the statutory and constitutional rights of those they are investigating." The second provision is that they are required "to advise individuals subjected to child abuse and neglect investigations of the actual allegations made against them." At the recommendation of the Health and Human Services Department, Chris has been working to pass these amendments into state child welfare codes and has been successful in 20 states, as of 2005. He says the battle is not over, and homeschool families still face that dreaded knock on the door; however, we have stronger tools now in place to protect our rights.
Klicka admits that the growing battlefront homeschoolers face today is government homeschooling. He says the education establishment has failed to quench homeschooling, so now it is tempting homeschoolers back into public schools by creating virtual public schools in people's homes. Only the public school district sponsoring the virtual charter school wins. First the school district receives $5000 to $7000 per child for a $1500 per-student cost. Second, the public school gains back control over the homeschooler. The student becomes a public school student, subject to its curriculum, supervision, and testing. Third, the homeschooler becomes "secularized." In order to pass the annual secular state assessments, students study the secular curriculum. Klicka asks homeschoolers, "How can we so easily and voluntarily go back to that bondage and control when so many have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to make us free? Is money worth such a high price?"
"Let us not sell our freedom for bowl of pottage," warns Klicka. He advises that the homeschool movement started strong, but we need to finish strong. He warns that we can not grow "apathetic and simply expect our freedom to homeschool always to be there." He encourages homeschoolers to join a local support group and to attend our state homeschool conferences to receive a regular "shot in the arm." Lastly, he recommends becoming a member of Home School Legal Defense Association to support homeschool freedoms around the world.
Reading about the process through which we have obtained our homeschool freedoms is an essential practice in maintaining our faith and continuing to homeschool. Chris Klicka has been on the front lines of many critical battles, and he tells the stories firsthand. Doubtless, Chris Klicka is one of the heroes of his own book. Daily he faces daunting odds with his struggle against multiple sclerosis, yet he gives his all to God and serves the homeschool community by working around-the-clock to keep homeschooling free worldwide. He takes no personal credit for any success, but says, "To God and God alone be all the glory." Klicka's book is a testimony to God's faithfulness and to many homeschoolers who have fought courageously. It is a testimony of God's blessings on a people who want to obey Him and please Him. The homeschoolers' path continues to be a trail of blessings. Thanks be to God. "To God and God alone be all the glory."
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