Homeschooling Family Faces Deportation to Germany, Legal Penalties

No surprise that the practice is illegal in Deutschland

A family homeschooling safely in rural Tennessee may be forced to return to their native Germany, where the parents likely face huge fines and criminal penalties, and could lose custody of their five school-age children.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are looking to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to give them permanent refugee status. But Attorney General Eric Holder is disputing their case, arguing Germany's ban on homeschooling fails to violate the family's fundamental rights.  

The Romeikes fled Germany in 2008 after authorities fined them thousands in euros and forcibly took their children because they homeschool. In 2010, a U.S. immigration judge granted the Romeikes political asylum—the first time this status was granted based on compulsory schooling laws. The judge found the family has legitimate fear of persecution in Germany, where a small group of Christian homeschooling families have already been jailed, fined, and stripped of their children.

Comments

[buybuydandavis]

"arguing Germany's ban on homeschooling fails to violate the family's fundamental rights. "

Because who can complain about having their children forcibly taken to state labor indoctrination camps? Of course the state should have full authority to indoctrinate all children. Parents making choices for their children instead of the state? That's crazy talk!

[Scarecrow Repair]

The original article isn't clear on what happened in 2008; it says the German government forcibly took their children, and the family fled Germany in 2010. How did they get their children back? They couldn't have raised five more school age children since then unless they had precocious quintuplets.