The Supreme Court And The Balkanization Of Education

There was a time when you went to school and you learned the filter version of education...

• There was "Dick & Jane" and they were white children.
• There was the White version of history... the Pilgrims fled England because of religious persecution but there were no mention of the slaves or the indentured servants that they brought with them.
• You never learned about King Philips.

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But over time schools started teaching the unsanitized version of history. Then the sh*t hit the fan!

It bump up against the White Christian narrative view of history... with no slaves, no gays, no women, no other religions, with no non-European immigrants. And now the courts stepped in.

Supreme Court’s conservatives are poised to strike down elementary school policy denying opt-outs for LGBTQ+ books

CNN

By John Fritze

April 22, 2025

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday signaled it will require schools to provide opt-outs for parents who have religious objections to LGBTQ+ books read in elementary schools, an outcome that would continue the court’s years-long push to expand religious rights.

During more than two hours of feisty oral arguments in a high-profile case involving a suburban Washington, DC, school district, the court’s six conservatives appeared to be aligned on the idea that the decision to decline opt-outs for books burdened the rights of religious parents.

“It has a clear moral message,” Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s conservative wing, said during a spirited exchange with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

[...]

The court’s liberal justices repeatedly pressed the idea that simply exposing students to ideas in a book could not possibly burden religion. A majority of the court seemed to suggest in a 2022 decision that mere exposure to ideas doesn’t amount to a coercion of religious beliefs.

“Looking at two men getting married – is that the religious objection?” Sotomayor pressed the attorney for the parents who challenged the books. “The most they’re doing is holding hands.”

They are looking for way to call the kettle black without it sounding enforcing religion.

The court’s liberal justices repeatedly pressed the idea that simply exposing students to ideas in a book could not possibly burden religion. A majority of the court seemed to suggest in a 2022 decision that mere exposure to ideas doesn’t amount to a coercion of religious beliefs.

“Looking at two men getting married – is that the religious objection?” Sotomayor pressed the attorney for the parents who challenged the books. “The most they’re doing is holding hands.”

But others on the court seemed to be open to finding a way to side with the religious parents without finding “coercion” took place.

The 19^TH writes,

Oral arguments for the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, take place on Tuesday. If the Supreme Court sides with the plaintiffs, experts say that it could have far-reaching effects in education — fostering a culture of pervasive censorship and eroding church-state separation in classrooms since schools cannot accommodate persistent requests to opt students out of instruction. Parents of faith would be given unilateral power to restrict reading materials, classroom discussions and school activities, purely on religious grounds. By doing so, these parents would infringe on the rights of individuals who don’t share their beliefs and stigmatize students from LGBTQ+ families or other groups their religions target.

Now suppose you have a child in school and your family is non-Christian, a racial minority, and the your child is gay. How will having only Christian, non-LGBTQ+, and about Whites affect your child?

A group of Maryland parents are suing on the grounds that their First Amendment right to freely exercise religion is being violated. They also contend that their parental rights are being trampled — an idea foundational to statehouse bills introduced across the country to stop schools from teaching divisive concepts. Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, is perhaps the most well-known example. That law banned the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to third grade — and later, the law was expanded through 12th grade.

The Constitution says "...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." But isn't that exactly what the Supreme Court rule?

What these parents are doing is basically asking teachers to manage the fact that they don’t want their children to encounter these books ever, and so that is a ban, because those books will not be able to be in that classroom, or we’re going to be pulling kids in and out of classrooms, whether it’s in this district or other districts that will see this case and respond with fear. We’re going to see no more LGBTQ voices in these schools because they won’t be able to manage that.” 

Multiple religious groups oppose the parents’ lawsuit. In a friend of the court brief, Montgomery County faith leaders and parents write that these petitioners “seek to wield the First Amendment to curtail students’ exposure to ideas in the classroom.” In another, groups including the Alliance of Baptists, a Jewish Partnership for Justice and Muslims for Progressive Values argue that the Montgomery County public school curriculum does not coerce parents or their children to act contrary to their religious views, directly or indirectly. 

So what are schools supposed to do, teach a class with student each reading a different book? That would balkanize the classroom, can you imagine...

Good morning, class. Good morning, class. Class? Class?! Shut up! Thank you.

Now open your book to page 120 in The Catcher in the Rye, but for those of you whose parents object to that book you can open your book to page 95 in To Kill a Mockingbird . However for those of you whose parents object to those books you can read page 221 in The Great Gatsby. And for those of you whose parents objected to all those books you can read page 5 in the Dick & Jane book We Look and See.

Is that what education is coming to? The Balkanization Of Education?

GLAAD wrote that,

Perry-Johnson explains a broad opt-out provision “could lead to exclusion of books that depict the experiences of other marginalized people – whether based on race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics,” a consequence that eight Muslim groups raised in their amicus brief filed with the support of A4TE.

“In a country where Muslims and LGBTQI+ students alike are being targeted simply for being who they are, it is more important than ever that our taxpayer-funded public schools are learning environments that are safe and respectful of all students no matter who they are or what they believe,” said Gabriel Arkles, A4TE co-interim legal director.

Remember the goal of the Republican party is to limit public education to the 3R's -- Reading, 'Riting, and 'Ritimatic. While the upper classes send their children to private schools where they can discriminate... no minorities, no trans kids, no gay parents. Nothing but White, Christian, straight students.