What the California Courts think is the purpose of public schooling

David Friedman has a post up on his blog where he points to Judge H. Walter Croskey's decision in the recent home schooling case. Friedman quotes the judge as writing:

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”

For those interested, you can find a copy of one of my papers on this topic here. The empirical evidence that I provide indicates that the judge is indeed correct that this is the reason that public schooling is provided as opposed to some type of voucher system or simply let it be done privately.