Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Michael Farris:
Every generation is faced with a unique battle for their time. They may want to ignore the battle and pass it on to the next generation. But in doing so, they concede defeat. By the time the next generation comes of age, the opposing forces have mustered sufficient power to win.

The Founders faced the battle for freedom; civil rights leaders faced the battle for equality; homeschoolers face the battle for parental rights. We must realize that if we choose to pass this battle to a new generation, it will be lost.

In 1992, I argued two homeschooling cases before the Supreme Court of Michigan. For the DeJonge family, I argued that their religious freedom and parental rights combined together to give them a fundamental right to homeschool. By a one-vote margin, the Supreme Court of Michigan agreed, ruling the state’s teacher certification law unconstitutional as applied to religiously motivated parents.

However, in the second case argued the same day, I argued for another family that their parental rights alone were fundamental rights and should receive the same legal result as the DeJonges. By a one-vote margin, the Supreme Court of Michigan disagreed, holding that parental rights alone are not a fundamental right.

Although homeschooling has subsequently been recognized as legal in all 50 states, there is nevertheless a threat to parental rights that lurks in the shadows of the federal courts’ distinction between fundamental and non-fundamental rights. We can’t afford to be ignorant of this threat. I’m Mike Farris.