In Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice, James G. Dwyer and Shawn F. Peters examine homeschooling’s history, its methods, and the fundamental questions at the root of the heated debate over whether and how the state should oversee and regulate it. The authors trace the evolution of homeschooling and the law relating to it from before America’s founding to the present day. In the process they analyze the many arguments made for and against it, and set them in the context of larger questions about school and education. They then tackle the question of regulation, and they do so within a rigorous moral framework, one that is constructed from a clear-eyed assessment of what rights and duties children, parents, and the state each possess. Viewing the question through that lens allows Dwyer and Peters to even-handedly evaluate the competing arguments and ultimately generate policy prescriptions. Homeschooling is the definitive study of a vexed question, one that ultimately affects all citizens, regardless of their educational background.

James G. Dwyer is the Arthur B. Hanson Professor at the William & Mary School of Law. He is the author of many books, including Liberal Child Welfare Policy and Its Destruction of Black Lives. Shawn F. Peters teaches in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of five previous books, including The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era.

— Jennifer Lois, author of Home Is Where the School Is

— Mitchell Stevens, Stanford University

— International Center for Home Education Research

— CHOICE