The Wrong Question

I can't remember where I saw the discussion (and if you're the one who asked the question, please let me know so I can link to you), but it was about the California case where the courts have ruled that the parents cannot home school their children.

Now, the question that was asked was this: Is there a constitutional right to homeschool? And it got the wheels turning a bit in my head, albeit slowly after sleeping in and waking up late this morning.

The more I thought about that question, the more I'm convinced that it's the wrong question to ask. The right question is this: What gives the state the power to tell you how your children will be schooled?

Not everything is a constitutional right. But it does not have to be a constitutional right. Remember that the Constitution of the United States of America never places limits on The People. It limits what the Government can do, but places no such limits on the general population. The question of how that family schools it's kids should never come up, because there's nothing in the Constitution that gives the State the power to dictate how the kids are schooled. The State should not have any say in that matter at all.

In short, what has happened in California is that the State has flipped roles. Instead of being limited by the Constitution, it is using laws to limit what the people can do. Instead of The People smacking the State on the nose with a newspaper and saying "NO!", the State has now, in essence, turned The People into subjects instead of citizens.

It's time for the actual citizens of that state to leave.