YOUR RIGHT

Your decision to homeschool or to place your child in a private school, rather than public, is
your right. This is a fact that sounds obvious, yet remains unconsidered by the masses. Go and ask any
number of parents why they decided to put their kids in public school and you, more times than not,
will receive a stare as blank as a Mormon when asked to give John 1:1 in the Greek. It is assumed by
the majority that when your child turns 5 years of age that they are to begin at the local public school.
Yet, this is not the only option. You have the legal right not to enroll your children in public education,
but instead educate them at home or place them in a private school. The laws are different in each state
and a simple Google search will inform you what steps, legally, you must take in order to do so.
Therefore, first and foremost, you have the option as the parent to where your child is educated.
POLITICAL/SOCIAL/ECONOMIC
At the birth of America, education was private with the exception of a public school in Boston, which
was not truly a public school and children had to be able to read to enter this school (which
presupposes the fact that the parents taught them how to do so). Parents were responsible for the
education of their children either themselves or at their expense in hiring private tutors. During this
time literacy was very high at 70% for rural and near 100% for urban America. Freedom in education
and a free market allowed for the competition of private schoolmasters, which leads to quality teaching,
and parents were free to educate their children as they wished and at their responsibility. However, with
the rise of Unitarianism in New England came the ideas that mankind could be perfected through
collective education with the civil State the benefactor. Horace Mann was one of these Unitarian
activists and became the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. He argued that
education should be secular, focused on civil virtue void of a religious worldview, and that education
should be a function of families but of civil government. Mann introduced the idea that private property
should be pledged collectively to provide this education and that land owners are mere trustees
with an obligation to put in their share toward public education at the risk of losing their property. All
this was presented to the public to be in their best interests for the better good of man and to alleviate
poverty. Education became mandatory, people were taxed, and what was once a free, private right, from
its very outset took on the principles of, by definition, socialism. It, from the outset , removed the
authority of the family and placed in the hands of the State, removed God and replaced with civil virtue
(humanism), and became compulsory at the threat of losing what should be your own private property.
Education in a free society means exclusively private education (McDurmon). As long as
education is compulsory with taxes, fines, etc. it is not free. It is truly antithetical to the biblical model
of parental duties, private property rights, and a free society. If you choose to not attend public school
you still have to pay for it by way of taxes, along with the cost of your school of choice. If you decide
not to, then have your land taken from under you as a penalty. Compulsory education is not in the
interests of people who desire a free society. In addition, many people choose the public school route
because it is free, however, we need to understand that it is not, just many times escrowed such that
we dont give it a second thought.
BIBLICAL
My argument in this section is that God, in his word, commands Christian parents to provide a
Christian education for their children.