[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 53 (Friday, April 4, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HOMESCHOOLING IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT

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                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 3, 2008

  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, homeschooling has been a major part of this 
Nation's history since its founding. In fact, when the Constitution was 
written nearly everyone was homeschooled. Many of our country's 
greatest leaders received quality education at home including: George 
Washington, Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson, General George S. Patton, 
Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Patrick Henry, 
James Madison, Davy Crockett, and General Douglas MacArthur.
  From 1620 until the mid-1800s, most parents in America taught their 
children to read at home. Students would then attend university systems 
that were operated by religious leaders. Education was voluntary and 
yet literacy rates in colonial America were significantly higher than 
they are today.
  Across the United States today more than 2.1 million children are 
homeschooled. Studies have confirmed that children who are educated at 
home consistently score higher on achievement tests and college 
entrance exams than non-homeschooled children. These graduates then go 
on to act as responsible parents and citizens in the workplace and the 
home.
  Now judges on the California appellate court, want to overturn not 
only hundreds of years of tradition, but the United States Constitution 
by denying parents their constitutionally protected right to homeschool 
their children. According to the California court, parents who 
homeschool their children ought to be fined or sent to jail.
  Who do these judges think they are?
  Apparently, they don't believe they have a responsibility to uphold 
the Constitution of the United States. If they did they would have 
known that the Supreme Court has already addressed the fundamental and 
constitutional rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education 
of their children and they have found in favor of parents.
  In Wisconsin v. Yoder, decided in 1972, the Supreme Court issued a 
ruling in favor of Amish parents who wanted to remove their children 
from public school after the 8th grade because it violated their 
religious beliefs. The Court held that the compulsory attendance law 
unduly burdened the free exercise clause in the First Amendment of the 
Constitution.
  In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, decided in 1925, the Supreme Court 
invalidated legislation that required parents to send their children to 
public schools. The Court found that the law unreasonably interfered 
with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and 
education of their children.
  Again in Meyer v. State of Nebraska, decided in 1923, the Supreme 
Court struck down a law that prohibited parents from letting their 
children learn a foreign language before the 8th grade. The Court held 
that the liberty guaranteed in the 14th Amendment protected the rights 
of parents to control the education of their own children.
  In accordance with the Constitution, Supreme Court case law clearly 
supports the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and 
education of their children.
  It's about time for the judges out in California to pick up the U.S. 
Constitution, look at Supreme Court case precedent, and issue a new 
ruling that is consistent with the freedoms this country was founded 
on.
  And that's just the way it is.

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