A group of religious conservatives has sued the Montgomery County, Maryland, school district for the right to have their children exempt from listening to stories of LGBTQ children, and their case is currently before the United States Supreme Court. Both supporters and opponents of “school choice” should hope they win their case.
In 2022, the school district purchased storybooks with LGBTQ themes to be read to elementary school children by their teachers. A coalition of conservative Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents are objecting to the exposure of their children to the storybooks’ themes. They claim that such mandatory exposure violates their right to govern their children’s religious development. They want their children to be allowed to be absent from classes when and where the storybooks are read.
Just as important as what the parents in question want is what they don’t want. They’re not seeking to purge the storybooks from school libraries, nor are they seeking to deprive those children and parents who want to hear the stories of the right to do so. In that sense, these religiously conservative parents stand in refreshing contrast to those right-wing bigots who smear school librarians as “groomers” seeking to prepare young children to be molested by perverts, and who would purge school libraries of books they don’t like and therefore deprive those who disagree with them of the right to read the books in question. The conservative plaintiffs in this case seek merely to determine what their own children are or are not exposed to. They do not seek to determine what anyone else’s children can or cannot hear.
But the school district objects to allowing parents to “opt out” their children from sessions wherein the books are read. It claims that to do so would set a bad precedent leading to a logistical nightmare.
Controversy can surround many courses in different fields. For example, issues may include:
- In American History: Is Columbus a hero because he helped inspire the European exploration of the Americas? Or is he a villain because his work led to the conquest and extermination of Native Americans? To what degree is America an imperialist power? How important was slavery as a cause of the Civil War? Did the New Deal prolong or alleviate the Great Depression? How justified (if at all) were our wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan?
- In English Literature: What should students read: Hemingway? Dickens? Steinbeck? Hawthorne? Shakespeare? They’re all dead white males. Why not consider the works of women, people of color, contemporary writers, etc.
- Science: How should Darwinian Evolution be taught—or should it be taught at all?
- Physics: Aren’t concepts such as “force” or “power” actually reflections of white male patriarchal domination of physics? Can’t there by some more feminist version? (Some feminists, no doubt with waaay too much time on their hands have actually raised this issue).
- Mathematics: How should students report the steps they take in solving algebraic equations? Doesn’t the conventional way reflect white domination of mathematics? Shouldn’t people of color be granted the freedom of showing their work by different means? (Yes. Really. A [mercifully] few “reformers” have raised this issue, but in fairness to them it should be noted that to date nobody is claiming that the solution to an arithmetic problem—say, 2+2=?—will depend on the color of the person making the calculation).
The point here is that Montgomery County’s officials do have a point. Practically all
Subjects in school curricula today can stir controversy and attempting to accommodate the objection of every single parent to every single idea presented in teaching a given subject could provide problems. However, that’s by no means certain. In the meantime, it should be possible to develop a system wherein the parents of elementary school children are warned that LGBTQ content may be presented on a given day, and allow them to have their kids absent that day. If we can land people on the moon and harness the energy of the atom, we should be able to find ways to accommodate parents with serious objections to what their children may be taught, whether in elementary school or in junior and senior high school.
And supporters of school choice should hope that that can be done. One of the main issues for the school choice movement is the degree to which parents can have a say in what their children are being taught. A Supreme Court decision in favor of the parents in this case will strengthen precedents recognizing parental rights.
But opponents of school choice programs, especially those involving vouchers aiding parents to send their children to private or parochial schools, should also welcome a decision favoring the parents in this case as well. Nothing fuels the school choice movement more than the words and deeds of politicians who say parents should have no say in their children’s education, or school boards who brand overly assertive parents as “domestic terrorists” who should be investigated by the FBI. A Supreme Court ruling against the parents would, in effect, diminish their rights to shape their children’s education and thereby strengthen the anger on which the school choice movement frequently runs.
It’s impossible to know at this time how the Supreme Court will rule. But observers were struck by the fact that the justices’ questioning of the lawyers arguing the case before them frequently seemed more sympathetic to the parents than to the school district. Everyone should hope that that means that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the parents and against the school district.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville
Economic Development Authority since 2018 and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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