Bill Description: House Joint Resolution 1 amends Article IX, Section 9 of the Idaho Constitution to eliminate the authority of the legislature to mandate compulsory government education, and instead, to insert language to protect parents’ right to educate their children free from governmental interference.
Rating: +2
Does it create, expand, or enlarge any agency, board, program, function, or activity of government? Conversely, does it eliminate or curtail the size or scope of government?
A basic premise of traditional Western values is that the family forms the fundamental unit of society. As observed by the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, “the first bond of society is marriage, the next, our children.” The natural bond between a parent and their child imposes an obligation on the parent “to educate (their children) according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability, and their happiness” (James Wilson, Lectures on Law). Because the authority of parents over their child derives from nature, parents reserve the natural and inalienable right to direct the upbringing and education of their children as they deem fit.
HJR 1 would curtail the authority of government to infringe upon this fundamental liberty by submitting to the citizens of Idaho an amendment to Article IX, Section 9 of the Idaho Constitution to remove the authority of the legislature to implement compulsory public education and replace it with a new provision that reads:
“The right of the people to educate their children without government regulation outside of the public schools of the state shall not be infringed.”
(+1)
Does it expand the government's bureaucratic monopoly on education, reduce family and student choice, or finance education based on an institution or system? Conversely, does it reduce government coercion in education, expand education choice, or finance education based on the student rather than the institution?
While HJR 1 promotes educational freedom by preempting the possibility of future infringements on the right of parents to educate their children free from government interference.
(+1)
