I have posed the question before, “To whom does the child belong, the parent or the State?” Some would rhetorically argue that the child belongs to neither, but I do not take that tack. The sense of ownership here is more of ultimate stewardship, and it is, of course, the parent’s and not the State’s. Alice outlines some of the inanities and perils of such an nanny-State arrangement:

Alice in Texas: The state versus home education

So, which best is better for the children- the best of parents, or the best of state educational authorities?

Should there also be state parenting authorities, telling us how best to feed our healthy infants, whether we’re getting it wrong about bathtimes, and when exactly to potty-train? (That’s a trick question- there are- it’s just that health visitors don’t have the power to threaten you with forced live-in foster homing for your kids when they think you waited a month too long before offering pureed meat to your one-year-old).

Do we want state authorities to check up on our marriages, and tell us when to get divorced? Do we want them to decide whether our aged parents should go into a nursing home or live out their days in our granny flat? Do we want the state to approve our weekly menus and ground us from Pizza Hut if we get too fat?

None of this is any different from having the state choose our children’s mode of education for us, against our wills, because it thinks it just knows best when all the evidence is that we don’t need help.

So it is. The State cannot be effective in overseeing these things. The family was designed to be the fundamental unit of society and to families should the responsibility fall.