BERLIN, October 25, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A high ranking political figure in Germany has slammed the country’s education laws for “usurping” children and ignoring the role of parents in a child’s education.

“Today I observe a total usurpation of children by school,” said Norbert Blum, a prominent member of the Christian Democratic Union party. “Children are exhausted by leaving home early in the morning and returning late in the evening.”

“I am against the state’s education monopoly and see parents responsibly homeschooling as a healthy response to an imperious school system,” he said, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Homeschooling was made illegal in Germany by the Nazi regime. Germany has recently cracked down on homeschooling families, handing out crippling fines, seizing children from their homes, and jailing parents who continued to teach their children at home.

Earlier this month, a district court in Darmstadt broke a family apart, handing the children over to a child protective agency, on account of the parents schooling at home.

German homeschooling families have fled their country, seeking asylum in Canada and the U.S. rather than face suppression by a government that seemingly will stop at nothing to make sure that children are formed and educated in state-run schools.

Michael Donnelly, Home School Legal Defense Association’s director of international affairs, applauded Blum for saying “what no one else in Germany has been willing to—that Germany’s iron-fisted monopoly on education is unhealthy for children and families.”

Jonas Himmelstrand, president-in-exile of ROHUS, the Swedish national home education association, praised Blum’s statements.

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“Blum is the highest ranking political figure in Germany to recognize the need for reform in Germany’s view on parental freedoms in education,” he said.

“As a former minister of labor under Helmut Kohl, Blum’s remarks can hardly be ignored by his party.”

Blum will be delivering a speech in support of parental freedom in education at the upcoming Global Home Education Conference 2012 in Berlin next week.

The conference will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the global home education movement.

Donnelly hopes that Germany will listen to Blum’s “wisdom and advice” and “take action soon so that parents in Germany can homeschool like millions around the world.”