Is Public Funding of Education Now Unconstitutional Based On Federal Discrimination Law? Bill Barr Thinks Possibly.

For years I've written about how public schools are very often indoctrinating children in ideals outside those prescribed in their homes.  I've warned parents for years to pay attention to what their children are learning in school and to attend school board meetings, yet until restrictions due to COVID-19 caused many students to stay home and learn on line, few were able.  When homework or books don't come home for view and the best you can get out of your kid about school is the following:

Mom, "How was school today?"

Kid, "Fine."

Mom, "What did you learn today?"

Kid, "Nothing much..."

How in the world do you find out exactly what is going on in your child's school?

Now, thanks to Critical Race Theory, parents are finally attending school board meetings and speaking out and working hard to determine exactly what their children are being told in school.

Recently, a wonderful article from Joy Pullman at the Federalist came out describing former Attorney General Bill Barr's comments at the 2021 Alliance Defending Freedom awards ceremony.

The speech needs to be read in total to understand why Pullman would devote an entire article to the importance of its words, but suffice it to say, Barr's argument is legitimate.  If there are federal laws restricting religious discrimination, how are we allowing schools to teach the OPPOSITE of the morals and ideology that Christian parents are inculcating in their children at home without so much as a peep from the courts?

As Barr says in his speech:

"In other words, purging schools of any trace of religion created a vacuum by eliminating the explanatory belief system undergirding moral values.  Now, we are seeing the attempt to push into the schools an alternative explanatory belief system that is inconsistent with, and subversive of, the religious worldview.

In many places in the country, the state of our public schools is becoming an absurdity that can scarcely be believed.  While an astonishing number of public schools fail to produce students proficient in basic reading and math, they spare no effort or expense in their drive to instill a radical secular belief system that would have been unimaginable to Americans even 20 years ago."

Maybe the big problem is that so many of us are ignorant on the topic of Freedom of Religion.  For example, I've been told countless times that there is a wall of separation between church and state within the United States.

This could not be further from the truth.  The families of many of our country's Founders had to leave Europe to be able to practice their religion in peace.  Why?  England was and is presided over by the Church of England - established under Henry VII in his quest to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, annulled.  Thanks to Henry - he and all English Kings since - have been recognized as the Head of The Church of England.  This gave England - in essence - "one true religion" that those in all forms of government could impose upon their citizens - with force, if necessary - in order to save their souls.  Those who didn't comply with the "one true religion" could be (and were) executed as heretics throughout the history of Europe and England particularly.

In the 1600's, the Separatists, a group of individuals who dissented in religious belief from the Church of England at the time, were persecuted for their faith and forced to flee.

For a time, these 'Pilgrims' found a home in Holland, but work was hard to find and hard if one found it, and their children were assimilating into the more permissive Dutch culture and losing the religious tenets of their parent's faith.

Consequently, the Pilgrims left Holland for America, in order to protect the faith of their families, practice their religion as they desired and find greater economic opportunity.

Well over one hundred years later and remembering the history of their ancestors, the Founders of this country specifically wrote the Constitution of the United States to reflect their desires never to have a church that could use the government as its enforcement arm.  Thus, they wrote the following in the First Amendment to the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an ESTABLISHMENT of religion, or prohibiting the FREE EXERCISE thereof..."

Please note: the word here is "establishment".  The words do not read, "Congress shall prevent the establishment of religion", they say that Congress may not ESTABLISH a religion.  These words do not, therefore, stop religion from being allowed to flourish within the government, it says that the government cannot force its citizens to follow an established religion - like the Church of England.  

As such, there is absolutely nothing preventing any public school from holding Bible classes, or allowing children to read aloud from the Bible, or say a prayer at a football game, etc.

In fact, the argument now becomes that, if schools - built and administrated on public money - are going to PRESCRIBE Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, pornography training and LGBTQ+ curricula (for example) INSTEAD of, or with EXCLUSION of, religious training of any kind, I don't see any way public schools are NOT breaking federal religious discrimination law.

Parents - especially Christian parents - should fully read and consider Barr's article and the idea that tax-supported schools are actively discriminating against religion in many ways and bring that to the attention of their school boards and state Departments of Education.  Public schools should not be allowed to demean religion or family by inculcating children with anti-family/anti-religious training - especially without allowing any kind of counter messaging/training - and it's high time parents motivated themselves to divest schools of this ability.

Jenni White