Abstract

Released Time: The Parent's Right to Choose

This article focuses on the parent's right to have a say in their child's education. Parents have their children excused to take dancing lessons or music lessons. The New York State education law authorizes such absences, recognizing the parent's right to have a say in his child's education. No one has challenged the tight of the state to comply with such requests. But if the parent requests that his child be excused from school to receive religious instruction, there are violent protests from many quarters. The same law which permits absence for religious observances and music and dancing lessons permits absence to receive religious instruction. This part of the law, it is claimed, violates the doctrine of separation between church and state, and the issue is now before the Supreme Court of the U.S.