Sending a man to the stake is certainly more extreme than sending his son to elementary school, but the one is within the jurisdiction of the State and the other isn't. God has appointed the magistrate to be His deacon of wrath, not His department of education. As such, God has given the government the responsibility to execute convicted criminals, but has not given them the ability to educate covenant children.
In this regard, conscripting kids to the secular catechism is an overreach of the State. The audacity is not seen in the severity, but in the scope. To send any man to his death is more severe than sending all men to school; but acting violently upon one man in a single moment pales in comparison to acting subtly upon all men's children over time.
Additionally, the State can execute a man for disagreeing with them, but it cannot make him agree. It can threaten him with death for his ideas, but it cannot make him live for the State's ideas. He is free to give his life for his ideals. By conscripting all men to their idea farms, the State has taken this freedom away from most. Before a man could die a dissident, now he lives as a disciple. Before he could be killed for his incorrigibility, he lives like an acolyte.
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