Subway vs. Homeschoolers

The Subway chain of sandwich restaurants is having a writing contest for elementary school children. However:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted. [Emphasis added]

Perhaps their reasoning is that the grand prize is $5000 worth of fitness equipment for their school. Homeschoolers, however, also play sports. The equipment could be given to a community organization, church, city park, etc.

Boxing out homeschoolers may be necessary to get the equipment into a school. Recently homeschoolers have dominated academic competitions:
National Mock Trial Invitational
Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge
Lego League Robot Challenge
GSN National Vocabulary Championship
Intel International Science & Engineering Fair
National Geographic Bee
Scripps National Spelling Bee
Honeywell Fiesta Bowl Aerospace Challenge
NASA Odyssey of the Mind Competition

If they were not worried about a homeshooler winning the Subway contest too, they would not have had to exclude them.

California homeschool update

The court ruling by a California Appeals court that made homeschooling illegal in California has been given a new hearing.

a ruling concluded parents in the state held neither a statutory right nor a constitutional right to provide homeschooling to their own children.

That ruling from the California Court of Appeal for the 2nd Appellate District was vacated when the court granted a petition to rehear the case, and the new filing is from the Pacific Justice Institute on behalf of Sunland Christian Academy, the private school that offers the independent program in which the family's children were enrolled.

It is important to know that the ruling is simply being reheard -- not reversed. Related bad news:

In an ominous move, the court has asked various parties attached to the public education establishment for their opinions on homeschooling. This includes the California Teachers Association, the State Board of Education, and the Los Angeles teacher's union, among others.

And some:

find it fishy that the court began challenging Californians' right to homeschool just one month after a coalition of Christian and pro-family organizations called for a mass "exodus" from California schools, due to troubling new curriculum requirements.

The Governator has promised to protect homeschoolers if the courts do not overturn the ruling -- he could start by eliminating the whole appeals court that overstepped its authority to make the ruling in the first place. Such justices should be impeached.

Even students are getting their say.

"The court cannot 'make' something illegal – that's the legislature's job. Sheesh!" wrote Jon Chi Lou, of Heritage Christian High School.

And Hye-Sung F. Gehring added, "This is ridiculous. California is retarded. Always has been."