Our discussion has been about education and not about schools, for schooling is only a means, and not always an absolute necessary one, toward education. Parents had the duty of educating their children long before there were any schools, and the duty would remain were all schools abolished. Even today, if the parents have the ability and the leisure to give adequate instruction to their children at home, they have no moral obligation to send them to school at all. (p. 436)
The state has not the right to monopolize education. Education is a legitimate form of private enterprise, subject indeed to a certain amount of government regulation, but there is notrhing in its nature that makes it a public or private monopoly. The reason is that the primary right to educate their children belongs to the parents. In understanding the work of education, the state is simply supplying the parents with facilities to fulfill their duty. If the parents have other facilities at their command, they have no obligation to use those the state provides. (p. 437)
