> If we decide to have school officials decide what appropriate curriculum is, what do you think it will lead to? They kicked creationism out of the public schools, they'd like to call it unscientific and not fit to be taught everywhere else.

In spite of the fact that I fear replying to this side issue will distract MarkN from the responsibility he has in further participation of this thread to address the primary counterarguments presented against him (that is, why education is not as or even more important to our survival as a nation that it must necessarily be a government concern), I nevertheless feel compelled to comment on this aside.

So you all know where you are coming from, I am a Creationist that believes *both* evolution and creation should be taught in schools, the former presented as based primarily on science, and the latter presented as based primarily on faith in God and the Bible. Teaching other creation theories accepted by a significance percentage of the world's population is also fine by me. By teaching multiple creation theories, it teaches students the very important lesson that the world is not in agreement on this issue and encourages students to think and make personal decisions for themselves. Teaching one in absence of the other is insufficient if not misleading.

Now, back to homeschooling. Taking creationism out of public schools is an irrelevant issue with regard to homeschooling. Creationism was taken out of *schools*, not *homes*. Parents are still rightfully free to teach children whatever they want. When you homeschool, and the state government approves a curriculum, these are MINIMUM things that must be taught. There is no constraint that the parents may not ALSO teach Creationism. And, like it or not, believe in it or not, it is IMPORTANT to a child's education that they be taught the principles of evolution. I gather from your comments that you don't believe in it. I don't either. So what? I would be ill-equipped to face the world if I did not understand the theory. Having the government approve a curriculum only sees to it that children meet MINIMUM standards of education. The reason they do this...

...goes back to the actual primary issue in this thread -- should the government be involved in the first place? If they have a right to require children to be educated, to tax everyone to support public schools, then they also have the natural right to make sure homeschool curriculums meet a minimum standard. And so we're right back where we started: in the crux of the issue -- should government be involved at all? -- which we have all addressed, all provided reasons for our answers, but yet you have assumed there is more to talk about if we "agree to disagree" and brush that central question aside. There isn't. Everything stems from that one fundamental question.