WAGNER: There shouldn't be a law that says you must send your child to school

When public education systems were set up in Canada and the United States, compulsory schooling legislation was adopted to compel parents to send their children to the governments' new schools.Many parents, it was believed, would neglect the education of their children in the absence of government coercion.For the most part however, that’s not true. Parents care far more about their children than anyone else, and are far more concerned for the future well-being of their children than anyone else, including government officials.It’s not surprising then, that some parents opposed compulsory schooling legislation.One notable mid-twentieth century opponent was the Ontario-born and Alberta-raised libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Her 1943 book, The God of the Machine, is considered a classic work of libertarian theory.That book includes a chapter on education which sharply criticizes government involvement in schooling. In Paterson’s view, a “tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.”Was a compulsory schooling law necessary to get Alberta’s children into schools? That is the focus of Cecil L. Race in his 1978 Master of Education thesis from the University of Alberta entitled, “Compulsory Schooling in Alberta (1888-1942).”Race provides a detailed account of compulsory schooling laws as they applied to Alberta.In early pioneer settlements it was difficult for children to obtain formal education. Few schools actually existed, and those that did exist were frequently great distances from the families. Expecting all children to attend in these circumstances was unreasonable and the government recognized that.However, with the development of better transportation and the building of additional schools, the government became increasingly serious about compulsory schooling and strengthened the legislation. The position of truant officer was established. Race writes, “As an index of the importance attached to attendance this individual was to be vested with police powers. It was a dramatic way to personify state control in education.”The Alberta Legislature passed The Truancy Act in 1910 to increase the pressure for compulsory schooling. Under this law, “The truant officer was a powerful government agent put to work in Alberta communities. He exercised considerable authority as an intervenor in what had previously been regarded as the private affairs of people.”The Truancy Act had been adopted in the hope of increasing school attendance and indeed, school attendance rates improved after 1910. Race writes, “Whereas in 1911 less than two-thirds of children between the ages of seven and fourteen were at school for any length of time, by 1941 almost ninety-five per cent of children in this age range were at school.”Department of Education officials claimed it was the enforcement of the truancy law that led to rising rates of attendance. However, due to his research, Race came to a very different conclusion.As he sees it, the low school attendance rates in early Alberta history did not result from a lack of interest in education by parents. Instead, it was because of the obstacles to school attendance presented by the circumstances of pioneer life.The lack of attendance was largely in rural areas, not urban areas. In recently settled rural areas schools did not exist. Therefore it was literally impossible for children to attend school.When schools did get built, many families continued to live great distances from them, and it was not reasonable for students to travel so far when transportation was very onerous.Even when a school was not too distant, rural schools often had a difficult time hiring teachers because the pay was low, the conditions harsh, and job security almost non-existent. Schools without teachers were obviously not worth attending.However, as schools were built, transportation improved and teacher pay raised, attendance in rural areas increased considerably. It became possible for students to attend and they did so. Clearly, their parents wanted them to get an education.This leads Race to conclude that the large increase in school attendance that occurred by 1941 was the result “of a widespread desire for schooling, being exhibited more fully because of the change in external conditions. Rather than improvements being a function of the pressure of enforcement, the author maintains that they were due mainly to a generalized desire to attend.”He provides a more extensive conclusion to his thesis as follows: “It is important to note that it was not the ‘push’ of enforcement, which determined, over time, the greater utilization of schools in Alberta; it was the ‘pull’ of factors such as the desire for schooling and the presence of supportive conditions for the operation of schools and the attendance of pupils. Positive rather than negative forces were the significant variables. In essence, the history of schooling in Alberta is not so much a story of compulsory schooling as it is of voluntary schooling.”Race goes even further. He claims that the implication of his research is that “the need for enforcement legislation may no longer exist.” Indeed, he argues that a level of school attendance in Alberta “has been attained which justifies the repeal of compulsory schooling legislation.”Compulsory attendance provisions currently comprise Section 7 of the Education Act.From a libertarian perspective, repealing the compulsory schooling legislation would result in a freer society, where government could no longer meddle in the educational decisions of families.Repeal of compulsory schooling legislation won’t occur any time soon, but even a serious discussion of this issue would likely drive the public education establishment batty. That, in itself, would be worthwhile.

WAGNER: There shouldn't be a law that says you must send your child to school

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