Homeschooling: Under Fire at Home and Abroad

While the freedom of religion and the rights of parents are basic human rights enshrined in law, a brief filed in the Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals on June 26, 2013 by the US Justice Department suggests that educating children at home is not a basic human right. On the contrary, in the case of a German homeschooling family seeking political asylum in the United States, the right to homeschool can be denied in the interest of creating “an open pluralistic society.” In the case of Uwe Andreas Josef Romeike, et al, v Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General, the Justice Department concluded that “Germany has no persecutory motive against religious minorities when enforcing the compulsory attendance statute,” rather, “teaching tolerance to children of all backgrounds helps to develop the ability to interact as a fully functioning citizen of Germany.”

Catholic World Report readers may recall the plight of the Romeikes, an evangelical Christian family that sought political asylum in the United States in 2010 after being subjected to criminal prosecution for homeschooling their five children in their home in Germany. At the US immigration hearings in 2010, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike claimed that they needed asylum in the United States because under German law homeschooling families are subject to arrest, fines, and the forcible removal of their children.

In February 2011, after an investigation of the claims of the Romeike family, federal immigration Judge Lawrence Burman granted political asylum to the family. Denouncing the German government’s policy against homeschooling, Judge Burman called it “utterly repellent to everything we believe as Americans.”

However, Judge Burman’s decision to grant asylum to the Romeike family was overturned by the US Board of Immigration Appeals in 2012.  (more...)

Homeschooling: Under Fire at Home and Abroad