Child’s Play: A Simple Constitutional Route to Regulation of Home Schools
According to the most recent national survey (2012) by the National Center for Education Statistics, over 1.7 million school-aged children in the United States are homeschooled. States take varying approaches to the regulation of homeschooling, and some regulatory regimes are surprisingly unsettled, with new social realities outstripping the law. Furthermore, there is no clarity on the constitutional limits (whether state or federal) of the states’ power to regulate homeschooling. That is to say, it is not clear the extent to which states can or must regulate homeschooling.
This state of regulatory and constitutional ambiguity has provoked significant concern among commentators. As homeschoolers grow in numbers and influence, they make more audible (and more absolute) rights-claims. And as the religious and culturally traditionalist tenor of much homeschooling becomes more apparent, observers worry that the practice will harm children intellectually and emotionally, and that it may erode the tolerant, critical, and egalitarian ethos of our liberal political order. The critics demand more, stricter regulation, and they demand it now.
