Private religious schools perform better than public schools, and public charter schools performed no better than regular public schools, according to a new study by William Jeynes, professor of education at California State University at Long Beach and senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute at Princeton.

Jeynes spoke Monday with The Christian Post about the study. He found that religious, mostly Christian, school students were a full year ahead of students who attend public and charter schools.

The results of his research were recently published in vol. 87, issue 3 of the Peabody Journal of Education in an article titled, "A Meta-Analysis on the Effects and Contributions of Public, Public Charter, and Religious Schools on Student Outcomes," and were presented last month in a speech for Notre Dame University faculty. more >>

A White House petition begun by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association seeks permanent legal status for the Romeikes, a German homeschooling family that came to the United States seeking asylum. They feared that their children would be taken from them because homeschooling is illegal in Germany.

The Romeikes – Uwe, Hannelore and their six children – were granted asylum in 2010, but the U.S. Justice Department is now trying to deport them, claiming that they should not have asylum because homeschooling is not a fundamental right.

"We were very surprised," Uwe Romeike, the father, said Saturday on Fox News' "Huckabee," "hearing that now it seems, not even in America, to be a fundamental right for parents to educate, or to decide on the education of their own children. We couldn't believe what we were hearing." more >>

Even as homeschoolers seek to avoid some of the educational approaches of public schools, some of the companies that profit from selling learning tools to homeschoolers have decided to align their curriculum with the federal government's controversial Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Saxon Math and Math-U-See have both announced in the last month that they would align their curriculum with the Common Core.

Both the math and English Common Core standards have been criticized by experts in those fields for, among other things, lacking rigor and using untested methods. The math standards have been criticized for abandoning Euclidian geometry in favor of an untested experimental approach and not adequately requiring students to understand how to make conversions between fractions, decimals and percents, for instance. more >>

A German couple will have its day in court once more as it appeals a decision barring them from seeking asylum in the United States in order to homeschool their children.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, a devout Christian couple with five school-aged children, appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided last week to have oral arguments take place in April.

The Romeikes, who came to the United States in 2008, are being represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association. more >>

In a political asylum case involving a German family that fled to the United States to be able to homeschool their children, the U.S. Justice Department is arguing that the freedom to choose to educate one's own children is not a fundamental right. If the Romeike family, who are evangelical Christians, lose their case and are deported back to Germany, they could face fines, jail time, and their children could even be taken away from them.

Homeschooling is illegal in Germany. The Romeike's did not agree with some of what was taught to their children in the public schools, so they began homeschooling in violation of the law. After paying about $10,000 in fines and watching the police apprehend their children and take them to the public school, they sought political asylum in the United States and immigrated to Tennessee. The Home School Legal Defense Association helped them with the move and now represents them in court.

The Romeike's were granted political asylum by a federal district court judge in Tennessee. Political asylum is granted to refugees who can demonstrate that they are being persecuted for religious reason or because they belong to a "particular social group." more >>

With the U.S. Senate set to vote Wednesday on ratification of the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), some critics, including former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and homeschool advocates, warn the treaty could undermine parental rights.

Nations that ratify the CRPD agree to forbid discrimination against persons with disabilities, much like the United States has done with passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The CRPD was first negotiated during the George W. Bush administration and has been ratified by 126 nations.

While the treaty sounds beneficial, Santorum said Monday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," it would be harmful because it says the state, not parents, have authority over what is in the best interest of the child. more >>