04. Home Schooling, Private Education, and the DPI (4/88)

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Whereas the United States by its constitution, tradition, and custom has long recognized, practiced, and provided for the parent to have the primary right in and responsibility for a child’s education; and

Whereas the distinction between public and private education, including home-based private education, is established by custom, tradition, and statute and is fundamental to the exercise of choice in education and to the avoidance of a state monopoly in education; and

Whereas Article X of the Wisconsin Constitution grants the State Superintendent of Public Instruction authority over public, not private, education; and

Whereas the Wisconsin legislature has passed a law (1983 Act 512) that requires Home-Based Private Educational Programs to meet educational requirements and be in compliance with the compulsory school attendance law, a law that balances the state’s, parent’s, and children’s rights and responsibilities in education;

Be it resolved by members of the Wisconsin Parents Association (WPA) that WPA views the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to have no authority to regulate private education, including Home-Based Private Educational Programs.

Be it further resolved that the WPA will not initiate or propose matters to the DPI that would recognize, foster, or grant such regulatory authority by the DPI over private education. 4/88