However, I was surprised to read that Germany was threatening to deport American missionaries for not enrolling their children in public school. It is not like this family is petitioning to become German citizens.
Missionaries' deportation postponed, for now
Christians refuse to turn children over to state-run school system
A deportation order scheduled to take effect today has been postponed, providing a brief extension for a family of Christian missionaries trying to set up a Bible-teaching church to share Jesus in Germany.
The deadline of Dec. 20 had been looming for Clint Robinson and his family, until late yesterday, when officials with two ministries working on the family's situation reported the order had been postponed.
The order's deadline had been set several months ago, when Robinson, in the process of requesting permission to live and minister in Germany, told officials his children would be homeschooled.
However, that remains illegal in Germany, and authorities, upset that he refused to turn his kids over to the state-run school system for their education, then denied him permission to remain in Germany.
----------
Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, education, Germany
3 comments:
It doesn't matter...Rina of Green Fields and Open Horizons is not German and is only there because her husband is working there temporarily and she has had to deal with the state, as well.
Niedersachsen also stated that the compulsory attendance laws applied to military personnel stationed there and the only reason they didn't have to go to a German school was because the DOD supplied a school...homeschooling would be illegal for them, even on base. Niedersachsen is only one state, and I still doubt they would do anything but it is interesting.
Wow. Thanks for the info.
The German government has juristiction over educational issues of non-citizen residents in the same way that employees of German or international companies working at US branches must comply with US state education laws.
I will have to do some research on the Niedersachsen statement regarding the military. Having said that, to my knowledge, policy regarding foreign military stationed in Germany is governed by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which is negotiated between the respective national governments.
I looked at the post on Principled Discovery and couldn't see what level of the government was making the statement that military families would still be subject to the state education requirements.
(For context, we were military stationed in Berlin for three years and we homeschooled for all of them.)
Post a Comment