As parents, we want to protect our right to direct our children’s education. But who gets to determine when that right has been violated? Today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Farris explains how the modern courts have answered this question.
Michael Farris:
Let’s talk today about the power of judicial precedents in parents’ rights cases.
If a court determines that one parent’s rights aren’t burdened when a public school forces their child into a sex education course without the parent’s permission, it establishes a very broad rule for all similar situations. No matter how egregious the sex education program of any public school may be, parents’ rights aren’t implicated at all.
Likewise, if a court says that parents’ rights are not burdened when the public schools force children to take instruction that is contrary to their religious faith, that’s a categorical ruling. It doesn’t matter whether the public school’s program is tangential or central to the curriculum. It doesn't make a difference if the religious objections are numerous or few.
If there’s no burden on parents’ rights or religious freedom when schools force children to learn secular material that violates the parents’ faith, that ruling is absolute for all parents of all faiths.
Because the American courts rely on the precedent of all previous rulings to guide their decisions, once a court has denied that a practice burdens parents’ rights in a single case, that ruling will continue to stand in similar cases in that same jurisdiction.
I’m Mike Farris.
