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Seems like we're hammering out a 'judgment call' out in a 'gray area'. IOW, we've got the same values and we disagree on what kind of law the state gov. or the feds can pass. We both agree that a mama can't through her baby in the garbage, and parents can be forced by the state to feed, clothe and educate the kids until the kids can take care of themselves. That's a moral point. The question of how much or what kind of education is good enough, well, that sort of thing makes talk radio and the Freerepublic fun.

Morality isn't everything. We also have to deal with what is. Napoleon figured out that he could raise mass armies of virtually every single man in the nation. Fifty years later Otto von Bismark figured out that universal compulsory education meant that he could raise a mass army smart enough to beat France's. All existing powerful nations today have both compulsory education and the draft (at least standing by). The rest seem to be professional victims or terrorists.

"Seems like we're hammering out a 'judgment call' out in a 'gray area'"

I am quite sure you would just love for me to agree with you here, but I am not going to do so. It isn't a gray area at all.

"...parents can be forced by the state to feed, clothe and educate the kids until the kids can take care of themselves."

Feed and clothe, yes. Shelter, too. To not provide those basic needs is to be cruel and negligent in the most biological of ways, and damaging to their pursuit of liberty. There are plenty of successful people, or even free but underachieving dolts for whom life is their education. I have a very strong PERSONAL opinion that life as one's teacher isn't enough, and so did my parents, and so I advocate going much farther than that. But that is MY choice, not my government's.

As far as compulsory education goes in terms of history, your own comments should provide you a clue:

"...Otto von Bismark figured out that universal compulsory education meant that he could raise a mass army smart enough to beat France's."

Good ol' Herr Bismark! What was his motivation for compulsory education? A means of control, not an enabler of Liberty.

(As I said earlier, don't take this the wrong way: State-sponsored education may be the best or only option for some parents. However, it is not the government's role determine what "best" is, or that their system is the "only" way to educate.)