Two important developments in education occurred over the last week. One was a sign of the problem we have. The other was a sign of the solution.
The sign of the problem, to which hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will provide the correct answer, falls under the headline of sex education.
The court has just heard Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which families from a variety of faiths—Muslims, Jews, Christians—are fighting the imposition by the Board of Education in Montgomery County, Maryland, of requirements that children learn material about gender ideology.
Per the Becket Fund, which is representing these families, the schools have some 20 books as part of their curriculum that “champion pride parades, gender transitioning, and pronoun preferences for children.”
We’re talking about material that seeks to legitimize the notion of gender ambiguity and transgenderism.
Not surprisingly, religious parents have objected and requested the opportunity to pull their children from sessions when this material is taught.
As reported by the Becket Fund: “These parents are simply asking to be notified when the books will be read to their children and to be given an opportunity to opt out.”
The Montgomery County school board rejected this request, insisting that they cannot notify parents and allow the children to skip these sessions.
Hence the lawsuit, in which the parents claim, according to Becket, “The Board is violating the parents’ inalienable and constitutionally protected right to control the religious upbringing of their children, especially on sensitive issues concerning family life and human sexuality.”
The buzzword that defines the mindset of those insisting on forcing this material as part of the school curriculum is “inclusion.”
According to one blogger from the National Women’s Law Center, this is “a case that goes far beyond legal arguments and into the heart of what it means to build inclusive, affirming public schools, particularly for LGBTQIA+ students.”
It is barely comprehensible that so many, including those with power in the Montgomery County Board of Education, have so totally lost the meaning of religious freedom.
Inclusiveness in America means that all are included under our constitutional protection to practice one’s religion as they see fit. It does not mean that a bureaucrat, or anyone else, decides what is right and just for everyone and coerces all to accept their world view.
As George Washington wrote in his famous letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, then a tiny minority in the country, in 1790:
“For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection shall demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
How can something so basic to our country have become so confused and lost?
One explanation is how dramatically things have changed. We have become a nation far more diverse ethnically and religiously than ever, while having to deal with monolithic public school systems and powerful teachers unions.
There is only one answer. Freedom. Liberation. Returning power to parents to choose how to educate their children.
And here is the good news, the sign of moving toward solution.
Texas is on the verge of enacting one of the nation’s most far-reaching school choice programs. It just passed in the Texas House of Representatives—a $1 billion allocation for vouchers for parental choice in grades K–12.
This provides for up to $10,000 per student, $30,000 for those with disabilities, and $2,000 for home schoolers. Special consideration in allocation of vouchers will be given to children from low-income households and those with disabilities.
Meanwhile, federal legislation has been introduced to provide $10 billion in tax credits for contributions to nonprofits that offer private education vouchers or scholarships.
Today, religious freedom and education freedom are becoming one and the same.
