As an observation on the “right” to an education in NC and other states, in reality we don’t really have a “right” to education but an obligation to attend a government approved school for a certain number of years. The concept of “rights” is double edged and implies voluntarism. A right to do something or have something implies the choice not to do it or accept it. Our right to vote is simultaneously a right to choose not to vote. The idea that we have a right to an education is equivalent to saying that military draftees have a right to join the army. How can something be a right when you can go to jail for not exercising it? Compulsory attendance laws convert the right to education into an obligation to attend school.