National Education Freedom Day
June 1 is the anniversary of one of the most important decisions ever rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court. That was Pierce vs. Society of Sisters wherein the Court declared that, in educating a child, parents "have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." The 9-0 decision remains the law of the land.
Yet it is doubtful that one person in a hundred is aware of the case. Not that it is totally forgotten. A Google search for "Pierce vs. Society of Sisters" listed 3,210 sites. However most appear in sources of limited circulation. Those who argue that parents should have the right to determine how their children are educated are clearly unaware that the Court declared parents have this right. What low-income families lack is the resources to exercise this right.
Thus, the battle over school choice is how to make it possible for low-income parents to exercise this constitutional right, as can those with adequate means.
Many opponents of school choice are more concerned with protecting their jobs and their special interests than with the education and welfare of the students. Others believe government can do a better job of educating, or training, children than can parents. This idea has a long history.
Sparta, in ancient Greece from 400-600 B.C., took all boys from their families at age seven, placed them in state-run boarding schools, and parents had no say in the process. Spartan girls, as with most civilizations at the time, and even since, were given no formal education.
The idea that government knows best and can do best and that its interests come first persists to this day.
One of the first proposals for a government system here came from Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphian and a signer of the Declaration of Independence who wrote, "Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property."
The first actual statewide plan, coincidentally also in Pennsylvania, in 1834, was largely the result of the efforts of Thaddeus Stevens, best known as the leader of the Congressional Radical Republicans at the end of the Civil War. Like Rush, he argued that "the rich and poor man's sons (are all) deemed children of the same parent - the Commonwealth."
In the 1925 arguments before the Supreme Court in the Pierce case a spokesman for the state of Oregon boldly stated, "As to minors, the state stands in the position of parents patriae, and may exercise unlimited supervision and control over their contracts, occupations and conduct, and the liberty and right of those who assume to deal with them."
While Governor of Arkansas, when Bill Clinton was asked if the state knows better than the parents about educating their children, he said yes.
During debate over a school choice initiative on the California ballot, one opponent wrote, "I support government monopoly schools. Parents cannot be trusted. Liberty and choice are dangerous to society." There is, of course, the possibility that was said tongue-in-cheek, but there can be no doubt many hold this view even if they dare not state it so boldly.
Those who disagree, who support parental rights in education, should never forget June 1as the anniversary of the Supreme Court's declaration of parental independence. Issue a press release. Write a commentary or letter to the editor. Hold a workshop or mini-conference. . Hundreds of such observations across the nation annually would emphasize the essential constitutional principle upheld in the Pierce decision.
There are also numerous national days, weeks, and/or months honoring this, that or the other thing. Why not recognize June 1st of each year as National Educational Freedom Day? One Congressman is currently considering a resolution to do just that
At the very least, and while it won't happen, governmental education entities - departments of education, public schools and their related administrative and other buildings and collegiate and university schools of education, should have over their doors these key words from the Pierce decision: "The child is not the mere creature of the state."
David W. Kirkpatrick is a Senior Education Fellow with the U.S. Freedom Foundation and The Buckeye Institute.
