The most recent report from the N.C. Division of Nonpublic Education found some 81,509 students, almost one in 20 N.C. children, being taught at home. This gives North Carolina one of the highest rates of homeschooling in the country.

There are more than 200 local associations in North Carolina, some with hundreds of families, providing fellowship, activities and support. Homeschool graduates here have been awarded the most prestigious college scholarships in the state, gained appointment to service academies, and even run for Congress.

The sunny social and legal climate largely is confined to the Tar Heel State, however. According to federal and academic studies, the national rate of home education is 41 percent lower than North Carolina’s, and many advocates of parent-directed education see trouble on the horizon — from trends in academia, law, and even a United Nations treaty which could endanger seriously families’ right to choose an independent, private education for their children.

Several board members from North Carolinians for Home Education, the state’s largest homeschool association, recently visited Chicago for a leadership conference sponsored by the Home School Legal Defense Association. The annual event is organized to “encourage, equip, [and] challenge” state leaders, according to HSLDA’s president, attorney J. Michael Smith.

This year’s edition drew 380 attendees from 34 states and five countries. The networking allows state homeschool organizations to share experiences and insight into the legal and social challenges facing the movement.

Often the conference addresses subjects with ramifications far beyond the family schoolroom. A regular presenter at the conference is Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute. Ray noted that in 25 years of studying the movement, he has seen the number of homeschoolers rise nationwide from “about 12,000 to a little over 2 million.”

Public acceptance has grown tremendously, he said, and while a parent’s choice to teach children at home is not “mainstream” yet, “it has become a considered choice for the mainstream.”

But while old cavils about parents’ ability to teach or their homeschooled students’ ability to interact in society have been answered satisfactorily, academic journals continue to offer radical criticisms of this freedom. Ray pointed to a paper by Northwestern University’s Kimberly Yuracko for the California Law Review, where she proposed that homeschooling be tightly regulated against the possibility that parents might “shield their children from liberal values of sex equality, gender role fluidity, and critical rationality.”

Attorney Michael Farris, HSLDA founder and chancellor of Patrick Henry College, raised similar concerns from other law journals. Farris warned that academics are arguing that the parents’ control of the child’s education is granted by the state and is not inherent.

This is important for more than just homeschoolers, Smith said.

“Any time any group depending on constitutional rights faces a challenge, it’s a liberty issue that could concern all of us,” he said. Restrictions on the content and structure of home education also would be applied to private schools and potentially to parental involvement in the public school system. “If you love the concept of liberty for families, and don’t want to become a slave to the government, you need to come to their defense,” he concluded.

While law school professors are training the next generation of judges, other challenges to homeschooling are closer at hand. The United States is a signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Until ratified by the U.S. Senate, the treaty would have no impact on American parents. If it passed, though, and its provisions became part of U.S. law, its effect could be swift and destructive, Smith said. A child who disagreed with a parent’s guidance on not only schooling but also discipline, friendships, or activities, would be given direct access to family judges who would rule on the wishes of the child with no determination of whether a wrong had even been suffered.

“Anybody with kids is impacted by the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Smith said. “If it becomes the law of the land in the United States, if a child dislikes a parent’s educational choice, all she needs to do is complain to Social Services. That will go straight to a judge who will consider the wishes of the child with no consideration whether a harm has even occurred.”

In Germany, Christian parents have been jailed for taking their young children out of explicit sex-ed programs, and other cases have been filed against parents and educators in England, Sweden, and Canada in the name of the convention. HSLDA attorneys have warned for several years of the growing influence of international law on American judges, even when connected with ungratified treaties and rooted in legal traditions unlike the U.S. Constitution.

To head off some of these concerns, HSLDA is promoting a Parental Rights Amendment (H.J. Res. 42), opening with the assertion that “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.”

Five members of North Carolina’s U.S. House delegation, Reps. Walter Jones, R-3rd, Howard Coble, R-6th, Mike McIntyre, D-7th, Sue Myrick, R-9th, and Patrick McHenry, R-10th, are co-sponsors of the measure. Republican Sen. Richard Burr has pledged his support, along with several House candidates (from all parties) currently seeking election.

North Carolinians for Home Education supports the amendment. Spencer Mason, president of NCHE, attended the Chicago event and said he agrees with HSDLA’s concerns.

“We have contacted our membership to remind them we need to get this amendment passed,” he said, “and how important it is to protect parents’ rights to direct the rearing and education of our children.” NCHE is planning to contact each of the state and federal legislators “to congratulate the winners” after the election. “We do want to re-emphasize the Parental Rights Amendment” at that time, he said.

Hal Young is a contributor to Carolina Journal.