Since I still haven't been to bed after work and still owe you and Isaac a response apiece elsewhere I'll limit myself to saying that, and that I agree with Celia and Glieseian (or random thoughts as it is now, but I still think of people by their wotmania names, which I'm glad to see you're still using; makes things easier for my aging addled brain. ) Compulsory education is a reasonable civic good, I'm inclined to agree, but there's nothing that says it has to be a compulsory STATE education. Home schooling doesn't allow you to just rubber stamp your illiterate 3 year old "HS graduate" after all; there are standards and curricula to satisfy (which, ironically, opens up a whole separate can of worms, because I'm also inclined to say a number of things these parents probably don't want their kids taught SHOULD be required curricula from SOME source. )

But by and large, I agree with rt and with Jeo by implication: Even the most ardent supporters of "the nanny state" don't take it literally; parents raise kids, not the Ayn Rand School for Free Thinkers Thinking As We Think Free. If the parents are meeting the kids educational needs there's no reason for the state to force its way in there or anywhere else unless there's real reason to think the kids are being harmed. Judging by the statistics on things like placement testing, the National Spelling Bee and the ever popular Jeopardy Teen Tournament it seems a better argument could be made for the position taken by several people in this thread: That public rather than home "education" does American kids the greater disservice.

OK, I said more than I meant, and I'm far from done (since we finally have a thread that looks like a thread should look, on a subject worth reasoned and civil debate between broad perspectives; has Cannoli become the wotmaniaest RAFOlk...?) but I need to sleep before I can discuss it intelligently.

Sorry I've not been by Facebook recently, but hope you and the family are well; one of these days we need to swap emails or something (or Skype, delicious wonderful Skype that lets me actually TALK to people in other countries for free. )