In Western societies, some version of the liberal idea that individuals have rights to control their own lives is dominant. There is, however, one exception: children do not have these rights (even though there is a Convention on the Rights of the Child). The adults usually authorized to exert control over children are the children’s parents. They are legally authorized to exercise control over the conditions in which their children are raised and concerning the kind of education they will receive. This parental right has been strengthened in many ways in recent decades. I will question both the principle of a parental right to educational authority and the way in which it has been strengthened, by showing what kind of rights to education children as (prospective) citizens might have and how the democratic potential of schools might be undermined by the parental right to educational authority.