Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Michael Farris:
American homeschoolers have long relied on the 1925 ruling of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters. In that case, the unanimous Court argued that forcing parents to send their children to one school or another is antithetical to the very principles of freedom and individual rights that form the historical foundation of this society.

While we take comfort in the support of the Pierce ruling, there is no doubt that if this case were before the Court today, it would not receive a unanimous vote from the justices. Even Justice Scalia, who’s usually considered a conservative voice on the bench, would probably not vote in favor of parental rights in such a case because he doesn’t believe that such rights are constitutionally enforceable.

The reason parental rights are often mishandled in lower courts is that our claims in favor of these rights are based on Supreme Court decisions and not on the actual text of the Constitution.

The European decision in Konrad v. Germany, outlawing homeschooling in that nation, should serve as a wake-up call to American parents. The federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have already begun to use international theories of children’s rights in interpreting American law. If we’re going to protect parental rights, we need to place an amendment into the text of the Constitution. This will secure parental rights in black and white. But we can’t wait to do so; we need to act now. We cannot wait until European law overtakes us. I’m Mike Farris.