Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Did you know that the academic world is reconsidering your legal right to home school? Today on Home School Heartbeat, Michael Smith, talks with Tom Washburne, about a dangerous threat to the freedom to home school, that is looming on the horizon.

Mike Smith:


Dr. Rob Reich, professor at Stanford University recently delivered a paper that seemed to challenge a lot of the basic concepts behind the freedom of parents to home educate their children. Should home school families be concerned about this, Tom?


Tom Washburne:


Absolutely Mike. We have to remember that while home schooling was very common through most of human history, government provided education has really been the norm for the last sixty years or more � and our laws reflect this. Fortunately, our Constitution has always protected the rights of parents to bring up their children. Over the last twenty years home schoolers have been able to re-assert these basic constitutional rights. These weren't easy fights. But they were won and home schooling is clearly now a recognized fundamental right of parents. What makes Dr. Reich's arguments interesting, I guess I should say threatening, is that his argument does not center around the right of parents, but the supposed rights of children. His argument is that home education needs to be regulated because, and let me quote him, Mike, "it must be the function of the school setting to expose children to and engage children with values and beliefs other than those of their parents." Such an attack on parents has got to concern all of us who cherish freedom.


Michael Smith:


Thanks, Tom! Please join us tomorrow as we talk more about the threats to parental authority.