Public Education

At TGC… Yes - Daniel Darling; No - Joe Carter

“Critics argue it incentivizes children to recruit others to its classes and has elicited worry about the proper separation between church and state. Proponents, however, argue the Supreme Court made it possible for programs like LifeWise to exist through a 1952 ruling and say it improves children’s lives.” - RNS

“A group of parents of various faiths sued Palo Alto Unified School District over a 2025 school trip to a mosque, claiming students were gifted Qurans and female students were encouraged to wear hijabs.” - RNS

“ ‘We would like for the Supreme Court to make clear that singling out Scripture for display in public schools is a violation of the First Amendment,’ Weaver said.” - RNS

“A new state provision, passed as part of a larger education bill last month, directs the Connecticut State Department of Education to develop instructional resources on Arab and Islamic studies, offering public schools optional materials designed to expand how students learn about the history, culture and contributions of Arab and Islamic civilizations.” - RNS

“Thus, enter all the predictable howls that ‘Christian Nationalism’ is now upon us and that a violation of the ‘separation of church and state’ and all the other familiar canards require all the usual protests.” - World

Also…

“some of the most difficult decisions parents will ever make are the decisions about how to educate their children, since for most parents, they will have to regularly revisit the matter as their lives change, as their family grows, and as different options become available or unavailable.” - Challies

“A group of religious parents who sued the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland after it refused to let them opt their children out of classes discussing books on LGBTQ+ characters will receive a $1.5 million settlement.” - RNS

“My own children are in seventh and ninth grade now, and they’ve never experienced a single day of school without working on a screen. Yes, even in kindergarten. Yes, even before they could read.” - Gleanings

“The West Virginia Board of Education on Tuesday reinstated a school vaccination mandate after the state Supreme Court paused a lower court’s ruling that allowed parents to cite religious beliefs to opt out of shots required for their children to attend classes.” - AP