Do parents have a constitutional right to direct their children’s education? Or does their authority really “end at the schoolhouse door,” as one court of appeals put it?
According to Melissa Moschella, a professor of the practice in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, the answer the United States Supreme Court gave to that second question nearly 100 years ago was a resounding “no.”
“Pierce v. Society of Sisters, following Meyer v. Nebraska, unequivocally affirmed that parents have the right to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control,” Moschella said.
