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From Blackstone’S Common Law Duty Of Parents To Educate Their Children To A Constitutional Right Of Parents To Control The Education Of Their Children, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

Blackstone’s Commentaries stated that the common law imposed a duty on parents to provide for the maintenance, protection, and education of their children, and of these, the duty to provide an education was "of far the greatest importance."

Early on American courts cited Blackstone for the proposition of the common law duty of parents educate their children. As the nineteenth century progressed, public and private schools were formed in most American states, and a number of states enacted compulsory education laws.

American states also sometimes also enacted laws that interfered with the freedom of parents to direct the education of …