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Would you leave it to parents to decide whether their children need to learn anything?

Yes. I trust most parents will see that their children get the highest quality of education possible.

"Yes. I trust most parents will see that their children get the highest quality of education possible. "

You haven't lived in Alabama before have you? I lived there a few years and the whole town I lived in was just sad. There wasn't even a private school that I knew of within driving distance either. My hubby saw a 10yr old entering as a kindergardener there once when he was at the school putting in a net connection. I subbed for 4th graders a few times and there were quite a few 12yr olds in the 4th grade. They were nearly impossible to control too until I had the principal come in one day and let them all know that whoever ended up in his office from the class was in real hot water. After that there was a dead silence and evil glare whenever one of them looked at me. (and i never subbed again once we finally moved away..it was too depressing)

"Yes. I trust most parents will see that their children get the highest quality of education possible."

One result no doubt would be the establishment of a permanent subclass more "sub" that what we have now. We both know some parents wouldn't care a lick about sending children to school and others simply would never be able to afford it -- or could afford little more than basic reading and writing.

This sounds like a real bad idea to me. Can you point to a single industrialized, top-tier nation that doesn't have public schools?

When the U.S. didn't have widespread public schools it also had a bunch of illiterate people. One of my great-great-great grandfathers could do little more than sign his name. Why would it be any different today without public schools?