Agreed. As an American raising a child in Europe, it's also strange that what I believe to be perfectly reasonable positions like "My child should have the right to play outside unbothered by police or busy-bodies", are not only opposed, but opposed because of other unrelated culture-war reasons. The reasoning seems to be that because (e.g.) some states allow parents to hit their children or otherwise do things that (I agree) are reprehensible, therefore parents should not have the right to allow their children outside. Baffling.

And yet home schooling is completely illegal in Germany, something that would be a complete deal breaker for me. But perhaps that speaks more to how bad public school is in the US, maybe it's freaking amazing in Germany?

I'm with you on this. Maybe it speaks a bit to opinions on public schools in the US, but even free access to the best public school in the world doesn't (imo) give someone the right to force it on others.