Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Although German law does not actually ban homeschooling, it only allows for exceptions to compulsory school attendance if the local school officials believe that there are “special circumstances” which warrant an excuse.

The highest court in Germany has determined that there’s nothing wrong with school officials’ unilateral refusal to allow any excuse for homeschooling. And in September of 2006, the European Court of Human Rights rejected an appeal of this judicial ruling.

The European court did not focus on the fundamental failure of human rights law that’s inherent in this decision.

International human rights law—with which Germany claims to comply—requires that all decisions that impact human rights are to be made according to the rule of law, not the whim of local officials. The most basic principle of due process requires that decisions which impact protected liberties need to be made according to objective standards rather than the unbridled discretion of administrative officials.

In other words, if homeschooling is to be banned it should be done by the decision of the state legislatures, not the whim of a local official.

Although the European court agreed that homeschooling was an exercise of protected parental liberty, it determined that important societal concerns raised by the German courts overrode these liberties.

We’ll discuss what’s wrong with that reasoning next time. I’m Mike Farris.