In general, I don’t care what appears on the pages of Parade magazine—everyone’s favorite newspaper insert—but lots of people probably read the thing so when it contains something totally off the mark it’s worth rebutting. This weekend’s edition included a little story on homeschooling, in which Century Foundation Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg said that a California appeals court decision prohibiting parents from homeschooling without official teaching credentials “pits those who believe parental rights are paramount against those who place a premium on well-educated citizens.”

Talk about your false dichotomies! Kahlenberg is probably right that many people who say homeschooling parents should be required to have state credentials do so in the name of “well-educated citizens,” but there is no connection between teacher certification and well-educated anything, nor between public schooling and good citizenship. Indeed, state control of education is no guarantee of any quality whatsoever.

People who want the state to control homeschooling might truly believe that it will produce well-educated citizens, but there’s very little evidence to support that belief.