The right to opt out one’s children from studying a sinister collection of sexually explicit storybooks in suburban Maryland, and the right to opt in to a Catholic Virtual charter school in Oklahoma, will be considered this month at the Supreme Court. That these two cases are under review by the high court is a strong indication that – after decades of being ignored by our educational system and the courts – parental rights are back.
The first case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, was brought by a group of parents whose children attend public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland. In the fall of 2022, the local school board announced it would use “Pride Storybooks,” a collection of around 20 books for the county’s youngest learners – pre-K through eighth-grade. The collection does not just celebrate Pride parades: it also introduces small children to the gruesome process of “gender-transitioning” and, inevitably, the ludicrous dogma of “pronoun preferences.”
Objections were raised by parents from faith traditions including Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Islam. Their religious views do not endorse the ideologies pushed in the collection and they don’t want their children indoctrinated. When their pleas to opt their young children out of this curriculum were rejected by their school board, they went to court. These parents are asking simply for the right to protect their children from these far-left storybooks. Withdrawing the collection, they believe, is a matter for the school board.
A district court ruled that the parents couldn’t show that the school board’s “no-opt-out policy” burdened their religious exercise. A divided Fourth Circuit panel agreed last May, ruling that, in the absence of any “coercive effect,” there is no burden on religious exercise. Losing twice in federal court is enough to discourage most parties, but not these parents. They successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review their case.
When it comes to protecting the interests of parents in their children’s education and religious formation, there is no better guardian than this Supreme Court. Just think back to 2020 when the Court struck down the “No-Aid” provision in Montana’s state constitution that excluded religious schools and families from a publicly-funded scholarship program for students attending private schools. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, recognized the “rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children” as an “enduring American tradition.” His colleague, Justice Samuel Alito, added in a concurring opinion that “many parents of many different faiths still believe that their local school inculcates a worldview that is antithetical to what they teach at home.” (Read more from “A New Direction: Parental Rights Are Making a Comeback” HERE)
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
