Will Estrada | Episode 019

Who gets to make decisions for children? This question is at the heart of the parental rights discussion. In this fascinating conversation with Will Estrada, homeschool dad, attorney, and president of ParentalRights.org, we hear Will's own story of being homeschooled. We also delve into the history of education in America and discuss the important work ParentalRights.org is doing to ensure the right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, and care of their children.

William A. Estrada is a husband, dad, attorney, and the President of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation, two nationwide nonprofits headquartered in Loudoun County, Virginia. Both have advocated at the local, state, and federal level for the last fifteen years to protect children by empowering parents. For 12 years, Will served as the Director of Federal Relations with HSLDA, lobbying on Capitol Hill for all homeschoolers. Will and his wife, Rachel, have two sons, Dominic and Merrick, and live in Northern Virginia. Will and Rachel were both homeschooled and now homeschool their sons.

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• Will Estrada was homeschooled through high school, graduated, and went straight to law school without getting an undergraduate degree. 
• Will wanted to be a lawyer since he was a child. At 10 years old, in 1993, Will saw the power of standing up for parental rights when the homeschool community flooded the switchboard and shut down the phone system on Capitol Hill in response to HR6, which would have ended homeschooling in the United States. 
• One of the most compelling statements that came from the 1925 Pierce v. Society of Sisters ruling is that children are not mere creatures of the State.
• The first public school program in our country was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1647 created under the Old Deluder Satan Act. The start of public education in our nation was to make sure children could read the Bible so they wouldn’t be deluded. 
• ParentalRights.org is working in all 50 states to ensure the right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, and care of their children as a fundamental right, which is the highest level of protection in our republic and our constitutional system. Currently 15 states have these fundamental parental rights statutes. 

At BJU Press Homeschool, we’re committed to providing children an education from a biblical worldview that is academically sound and challenges them to advance, think critically, and live like Christ. This type of education is not often possible in public schools because of the number of children taught in a classroom, a difference in worldview, and peer and societal pressure to conform. Homeschooling allows parents to instruct and disciple their children without daily fighting messages from an opposing worldview taught in the classroom. And with tuition costs and fees for private schooling or tutoring, homeschooling may be the only option for parents who are concerned for their children’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
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