The Fundamental Case for Parental Rights

Do the right and the responsibility to educate children belong primarily to parents, or to the state? And who should win when parents and the state disagree over educational content, methods, and goals?

Disputes about parental rights are ultimately disputes about authority. Either childrearing authority fundamentally resides in the political community (which partially delegates that authority to parents), or parental authority is natural and pre-political, based on the nature of the parent-child relationship.

If childrearing authority ultimately lies in the hands of the state, then the state’s preferences about how to educate children should usually win when there is a conflict with the parents’ preferences. But if parents’ authority over their own children is natural and pre-political, then the family is effectively a little sovereign community within the larger political community. Like any sovereign community, it has the right to direct its internal affairs free from coercive external interference, except in cases of abuse and neglect.  (more...)

The Fundamental Case for Parental Rights