Parens Patriae

The State's Interest

The concept of parens patriae was adopted from English precedent and is the origin ofthe state's power to preserve and protect the health, patriotism, morality, efficiency, industry, and integrity of its citizens. As a result, the state, as parent to all its citizens, has the inherent prerogative to provide for the welfare of both the commonwealth and individuals and to protect those individuals who are not legally competent to act on their own behalf.

In relationship to education, the state, in its role of parens patriae, can act to serve and protect the well-being of children and the parental interests in having children educated. The parens patriae concept gives states standing to sue on behalf of these citizens to protect what courts deem a quasi-sovereign interest, defined by the U.S. Supreme Court as those interests that the state has in the well-being of its populace. In order to act in its capacity as parens patriae, state officials must articulate an interest apart from those of private parties, usually one that the state could address through its sovereign law-making powers. The state has a quasi-sovereign interest in the health and well-being, both physical and economic, of its residents in general, and thus can act to protect children and people who are incompetent, helpless, or infirm and require protection.

In applying the concept of parens patriae to schools, states often assert their authority to enforce minimum educational and welfare requirements for the benefit of their citizenry. It is well accepted that education is a benefit to the society; education supports state goals, such as the continuity of having an enlightened electorate, an educated populace, and an educated workforce.

Legally, because education is viewed as a benefit to the entire society, state legislatures have the power to tax citizens for support of public schools. The early theorists examined this notion and asserted that education was a public obligation that must be nurtured to develop the entire civic intelligence and to better govern through an enlightened republic. In other words, because the state, as parens patriae, has an interest in enforcing minimum education and welfare requirements, it also has the force and power to use taxation to fund schooling.

A final tenet of the parens patriae authority of the state within the context of schooling is its right to compel all parents to provide their children with a [Page 610]minimum secular education. This includes compulsory education as a basis for fostering basic educational requirements. State legal authority to require school attendance is found in the common-law doctrine of parens patriae. The authority for requiring compulsory attendance is the state's ability, through the exercise of the police power of the legislature, to establish reasonable laws as it may judge are necessary for the good of the state and its inhabitants.

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