Abusive California Parents were Homeschoolers?

I was horrified to see the article about the abusive parents in California who shackled some of the children to beds and are accused of torture, neglect, etc. I hope they get what they deserve.

You may have noticed that the mainstream media is suggesting this couple's crimes as a reason to fear religion and home education. After all, the abusive parents were former church-goers and were registered as homeschoolers in California.

There is nothing wrong with studying the case of this family and learning from it. However, it should be also noted that there are massive numbers of abuses of kids in public school families. Up to 28% of US public school children and youth have been sexually abused.  140 public school children are killed by their parents every year in the US.  The Media does not use any of those examples to stir up fear of public education families.

Nor should they. The more important issue at hand is that the Bible places the responsibility of education squarely in the hands of parents (Prov 4:1-2, Prov 1:7-9, Prov 22:6, Deut 6:5-9, Deut 11:19, etc). In America and Western Europe, parents have to continually work to force their ever-expanding governments to grant them freedom to educate their children in the way that God leads them to. That freedom was assumed as a fundamental right by America's founders, but has come under heavy assault in recent decades.

The story of the abusive CA homeschool family leads to the question, "How are kids being protected from these creepy, evil parents.  Who is protecting the children?"  The easy answer is to say that we need to have more oversight in place.  We need laws to provide accountability for these homeschooling families.  So we look to the government as a solution.  But what evidence is there that the government can prevent abuse in the education systems it manages?  Abuse occurs in the government's own top-rated public schools.
  In the US, there are over 4,000 sexual assaults per year on public school children by other public school students—and those are just the cases that are reported to law enforcement.  It would be foolish to argue that it is safer to take children out of the protective care of their parents and entrust them to the "watchful supervision" of public schools.

The Christian Church should learn from scandals like the crimes of these abusive parents in California, but with a consideration of basic risk analysis, common sense, and a biblical worldview.