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Originally Posted by Odysseus
Surely you agree that education is a fundamental right for children?
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"Fundamental right" is something of a loaded term in this country, since it suggests a constitutional right. There isn't any direct mention of education in the federal Constitution, and what you would call a conservative in this country would argue until they were blue in the face that not only is there no fundamental right to an education in the Constitution, but also that there was no such right at the time the country was founded.
Individual U.S. states maintain their own school systems, but there is a federal Department of Education that administers federal standards and transfers federal tax money to states tied to conformance with those standards. Many leading political conservatives have called for the abolition of the federal Department of Education. Along the nuttier outposts of conservatism there are calls to abolish public schools completely.
One of their greatest victories here in recent years has been in the federal Supreme Court, where they won the ability to use tax grants to remove children from public schools and install them in private schools, many of which are run by religious organizations. Despite the fact the Constitution generally forbids this, the Court reasoned it was allowable since the money first goes into the parents' hands who then make the choice at which private school to spend the money, so the money isn't transferred directly between the government and the church.