§ MR. LUPTONI beg to ask the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that William 1255 Mitchell, farmer, of Heighington Fen, near Lincoln, has been repeatedly prosecuted on account of the non-attendance of two of his sons at the council school, over two miles distant, and that in eighteen months the fines have aggregated over £20; if it is permissible to force a parent, by repeated penalties, to send his boy to a school which he considers unsuitable; and if he will take steps to prevent the continuance of this kind of treatment.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe law requires that parents shall cause their children to attend school unless there be reasonable excuse for their non-attendance. It rests with the magistrates to determine what is a reasonable excuse. I am not prepared to initiate legislation conferring on the parent the right of deciding whether the education provided at a particular school is or is not suitable to his children. This would be, in practice, equivalent to the abolition of compulsory school attendance.
§ Mr. LUPTONIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the magistrates in deciding this case expressed sympathy with the defendant and were of opinion that his children were being well educated at home, but by reason of the peculiar by-laws which differ from the general Act they felt it necessary, against their own judgment, to inflict a fine.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThat has not been brought to my attention. Of course no local magistrate can be allowed to abrogate the general law.