Who Owns the Child?

A Word in Season: Messages by R.J. Rushdoony on the Faith for All of Life · May 18, 2026 · 4m

A century ago, John Swett the architect of California’s public school system openly denied that parents had any rights in government education, insisting that teachers were not accountable to them and that children in public schools were “the children of the State.” Later attempts were even made to prevent parents from sending their children to Christian or private schools without state approval, all based on the socialist premise that the state owns the child. Swett went so far as to say that even adult children “belong… to the State,” a notion foundational to socialism and communism, where…