Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a major parental rights case in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a challenge to Montgomery County (Md.) requiring their children to participate in instruction that includes LGBTQ+ themes. It is a case that could produce sweeping changes across the county as parents object to the use of public schools to advance social and political agendas. These books are being required for children 3-10 years old. The parents have the stronger argument in my view. A ruling in their favor could prove one of the most important victories for parental rights in decades.
Parents objected in Maryland in 2022 when the county approved books featuring LGBTQ+ characters for inclusion in its language-arts curriculum. The county then announced that it would not allow parents to opt to have their children excused from instruction involving the storybooks.
Various parents sued, including some citing their Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox beliefs. They lost in the lower courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The parents cited Wisconsin v. Yoder, where the Court declared that it was “recognized ‘beyond debate’ the First Amendment right of parents ‘to guide the religious future and education of their children.’” In that case, the court held that Amish parents did not have to send their children to school after the eighth grade because it conflicted with their religion.
They also argue that the Maryland policy is neither neutral nor generally applicable as required under Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. That could produce the greatest number of questions from the justices today. The parents argued that the county has long allowed notice and opt-outs for material and instruction that address family life and sexuality. However, it refused to do so here.
The parents alleged religious hostility in comments made against the challengers. They raise the question of why such children cannot be allowed alternative reading options.
The Montgomery County Board of Education is arguing a narrower view of the free exercise clause and that public education requires a uniform curriculum, including recognition of our society’s diversity. They insist that allowing some to opt out would present an overwhelming burden on the schools.
A decision for the parents could significantly change public schools’ handling of such controversial materials. I have previously written about how administrators and teacher unions are destroying public education by elevating agendas over academics.
Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”
Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families. They are no longer a captive audience. If public unions want to maintain funding, they will have to actually improve educational results for these families.
Notably, figures like American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten have opposed the elimination of the Department of Education because it might help voucher schools and other alternatives to public education.
In a podcast, Weingarten explained, “We know, for example, what Texas would do. They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now, they’ll just give it for vouchers.”
There is reason for Weingarten and the teacher’s union being so concerned. Florida allows for school choice and has demanded greater performance from public schools. Despite attacks by Weingarten and other Democrats, Florida has been ranked as the number one state for both education and the economy.
However, public educators have continued to lower proficiency requirements and cancel gifted programs to “even the playing field.” The result has been to further hide the dismal scores and educational standards of many public school districts.
There is an irony in the position before the Supreme Court by public educators. A reversal may be a critical change in slowing the departure of families from public schools. One of the families discussed in this case sold their house to afford private schooling for their children.
By limiting such mandatory programs, some families may be less likely to seek alternatives to public schools. These families want to send their children to public schools while retaining their role in instilling religious values for their children. Montgomery County is forcing a choice that few parents will make against their family values.
As on earlier controversies over parental rights, Democrats will find that this is not partisan; it is primal for parents.
This case is another example of the problems you create when government runs intstitutions it has no business being involved in.
This entire case goes away if you eliminate public schools.
I would prefer if you also eliminate government funding of K-12 education – as well as government funding of higher education. There is no difference between ANY of this, and whether government should fund VOA or PBS or NPR.
Private actors can engage in whatever expression they wish.
Government actors have no business at all in the expression of values.
As we are not going to eliminate public funding of education – we can provide the funding to the parents of kids to be used for the education those parents chose. If they wish to send their kids to rainbow academy – they can,
If they wish to send their kids to Jerry Falwell K-12 they can.
It is not the business of the government.
This is an imperfect solution – though it is the solution of many of those so called socialits utopias in Europe – such as the Swedes.
The best solution is to get government out of education.
If government only funds school choice, wouldn’t that be acceptable? Vouchers give power to the parents to decide where their kid will be educated, and they make reasonable educational choice available to even the poorest families. Like you say, we are not going to get rid of public funding of education, so creating free market competition among schools will led to the best quality education rising to the top, right?
School choice is a massive step in the right direction.
But it is still only a partial free market. It is because things have a cost that people must pay that free markets strive to reduce that cost.
Socialism fails because of what is called the socialist calculation problem.
The absence of a dynamic bottom up system of costs and prices requires any top down system to determine the cost and price of everything and that is a completely impossible task.
The US in the 19th century had a bi-metal standard for money – silver and gold. The inability of the govnemrnt to properly and dynamically get the price of silver and gold correct relative to each other cause every recession and depression in the 19th century.
If Government can not properly determin TWO prices, how int he world can it possibly hope to get billions of prices correct particularly prices that are dynamic.
This is also why govenrment price controls never work.
If government pays for education parents will not be properly motivate to seek the best value.
The education market will not be motivated to constantly deliver more for less.
The result will be constant upward pressure on the price of education – probably not as bad as the mess we have now.
But we ALWAYS see people arguing that if we spend more on education or healthcare or …. we will get better healthcare, education ….
Yet in most of the rest of the market that is NOT true.
My wife went to buy a toaster a month ago. I told her she could get one for about $19, she told me I was living 40 years ago.
I went to amazon and found that a 2 slice toaster could be bought for 12.99 and a 4 slice one for 19.99
The same price as a two slice in 1965.
Absent central banks and price controls free markets drive prices relentlessly DOWN.
Mild deflation is the economic norm in a free market.
it also HAS TO BE that way.
Rising standard of living is more than humans value for less human effort.
If you say that an hour of your labor has a fixed value – then all other prices must go down to increase standard of living.
The US had growth of 7% in the 19th century, 3.5% in the 20th and 2% in the 21st.
That means if you adjust for constant wages, the price of nearly everything has gone DOWN.
If you do not require parents to pay for the cost of education – the price will go up – not down.
I am so tired of the left and thier BS. The right has mostly given up and we really don’t get much interference or propaganda for them as they lost against gay marriage and Intelligent Design. I wish the left would realize that we don’t want THEIR CRAP EITHER.
Transmarriage. Homosexuals are in the transgender spectrum. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #DiversityEquivocationIndoctrination #AlbinophobiaToo
Evolutionary creationism is the secular alternative in liberal societies.
#HateLovesAbortion
I almost feel bad for the schools. Almost. In today’s day and age, it is harder for anyone to agree on anything let alone a curriculum for children. Nobody is ever happy. I certainly agree with parents that say not my child, but given no out and forcing issues on to their children. Yet, you cannot allow some parents to dictate their views upon the larger group because they do not like it and use religion as the hammer.
This is the latest salvo in a larger culture war that has been going on since at least the 1950’s. Personally I think the school district goofed by not allowing an out. They are forcing a view upon families that have very religious views.
For me, my question is what is the role of schools? Education is the obvious answer. But what does that mean? Is it about facts, dates, and figures? Yes and no. It is certainly about this in part, but ultimately it is about teaching one to think and that means exposure to ideas that will make one uncomfortable.
I take no stand upon any given book regardless of its content because I have not read said book. It has been my experience that most books are not what they are made out to be, yet some are troublesome and every bit the problem worried about. The key is the finding the right balance. Good luck with that in today’s climate.
The school district should have given an out and they would not be in this mess. But no, they knew better and here we are today. I expect the parents to win this case, but it should never have gotten to this level.
Schools have done this to themselves.
Public schools were created for a simple purpose – to teach students reading Writing, and arithmatic that are critical to future success as adults.
over time we have expanded that – and the results have been growing failure at the core purpose of schools, and no discernable benefit regarding any of the changes,.
It should not be controversial that you can not use public schools to force values on children over the objection of their parents where you can produce no actual evidence that you will even succeed at any measuable good purpose.
Jonathan: In Mahmoud v. Taylor the religious wing of the SC will probably side with the plaintiffs in this case. Books with LGBTQ+ themes will be effectively banned from public schools in Maryland. Of course, this case is about book banning, not “parental rights”. This case has the potential to dramatically escalate book bans across the country by giving legal cover to discriminatory censorship, particularly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
Pen America has documented more than 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021–predominantly targeting books by and about LGBTQ+ people and books about people of color dealing with race and racism. It’s all been done in the name of “religious freedom”. But it’s censorship and attacks on “free speech”–a subject you seem to avoid when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights.
Intellectual growth means being exposed to a wide variety of reading material. This is not served by banning books. If the majority on the right-wing SC supports the right of parents to “opt out” and effectively ban books with LGBTQ+ themes in Maryland’s public schools what message does that convey to other parents who think their kids should have the opportunity to read books with LGBTQ+ themes? Polls show 67% of adult Americans say being LGBTQ+ should be accepted by society, including 59% of religious-affiliated adults. Two-thirds of US Catholics, Protestants and other Christians oppose using religious beliefs as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
Let’s be clear. The LGBTQ+ community is not going to disappear because some small minority of religious zealots want to ban LGBTQ+ books from public schools. Ultimately, children will find the books they want to read–even though they might be on the back shelf of a school library.
It’s also a question of fairness. There are 2.6 million LGBTQ+ adults who are raising children the age of 18. Many of those adults live in Maryland. Should their children be discriminated against by depriving them of reading books in school that might be of interest to them? But you seem to think this case is about vindicating “parental rights”. No. This case is about imposing censorship and discrimination!
@Dennis
Your faux legal expertise is just the coup de grace. You are an idiot, dude.
As always, when progs don’t have a moral or legal case, they fall back on scare tactics. Dennis here has the old “book bans!” chestnut. None of these books are banned. You can easily order them through Amazon or find them at a public library. Parents who want their children to read the books are freely able to gain access.
Dennis.
As the sound goes.
Leave the kids alone.
#. Why not a magnet school for lgbtq+? What’s the reason religious people should vacate public schools?
There isn’t a compromise. It’s destroying public education. Put everyone in computer schools and stay home. That’ll drop the cost to about 600 per year. Sell the brick and mortar. Get a baby sitter.
💯 bunk
Thanks, D. Pope Francis said the following, excerpted from “The National Catholic Reporter”:
“Interviewing Pope Francis in July, Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli asked the pope how he might act as a confessor to a gay person in light of his now famous remarks in a press conference in 2013, when he asked: “Who am I to judge?”
Francis’ reply appears in a new book The Name of God is Mercy to be released Tuesday.
“On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” the pope says. “I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”
“I am glad that we are talking about ‘homosexual people’ because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity,” he continues. “And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love.”
These right-wingers don’t believe that LGBTQ people are entitled to the same dignity as others, that they should be marginalized–and, that schools should disregard the free speech rights of those who disagree. They want their children to also be prejudiced against such people–and, that, too, is wrong.
I don’t know gigi, you are asking a lot, because I feel “prejudiced against such people” like you every time I see your name at the beginning of a post. Even you admit that the pope refers to “such people,” in his own words, “that these people should be treated with delicacy….”
There are other kinds of “such people” in the world that “should be treated with delicacy and not marginalized.” (I would be very surprised if these were the pope’s actual words, e.g., “marginalized’– since English is not his primary language…..)
In fact, “such people” also means people like you, filled with such venom and criticism that you must come here every day and spout off against the very persons (Turley and Trump) who protect your right to do so.
I try to to be holy, to be kind and treat you with delicacy and not marginalize you, but you are one tough mean ole resentful soul, and I am working hard and praying that I can accept you without going on blood pressure medication.
I cited “The National Catholic Reporter.” Because you are obviously pro-Trump, you construe criticism of Trump as “venom”, which it isn’t.
See, I passionately believe that obtaining power by lying, both about immediately bringing down the cost of groceries and that Project 2025 was always going to be the agenda, playing the race card, selling to the biggest campaign contributor the power to fire loyal federal employees, including cancer researchers, weather scientists, food safety inspectors, VA nurses and counselors, and to arbitrarily shut down USAID, the CFPB and Department of Education is immoral and should be impeachable. The American people never voted for any of this. I feel the same way about disrespecting the Constitutional rights of migrants and ignoring court orders. Republicans are supposed to be originalists, and the Constitution is clear about the right to due process applying to “all persons.”
To me, Trump is a fundamentally invalid person to be in the White House in the first place , which doesn’t take into consideration his destruction of our economy. his refusal to listen to economists about tariffs, ignoring the economic damage that has already been done, alienating our allies and pushing unqualified people into jobs they lack the skill to handle because their main qualification is unquestioning loyalty to whatever whim Trump comes up with. Hegseth is just one example— anyone else would have been canned long ago. Bondi is another— who ever heard of firing a prosecutor for honestly answering a judge’s question?
Yes, I am upset about these things as are the majority of the American people. That’s not venom you perceive—-it’s patriotism and love for American values that mean nothing to Trump, who puts his ego above everything else.
“Because you are obviously pro-Trump”
So ? You treat people who support Trump like southern whites treat blacks.
“you construe criticism of Trump as “venom”, which it isn’t.”
You do not criticise Trump – you rant nonsense.
Trump has no problems with Gay people – there are several gays in his cabinet.
He appointed the first openly gay ambassador in his first term.
Trump and the majority of americans are opposed to this bizare self contradictory sexual NONSENSE of yours and the left.
If the tasks that those Trump has fired are as important as you claim – they will be performed by someone in the free market, possibly the same person.
This is pretty simple – either you beleive that govenrment should deliver everything we want and need from cradle to grave – and you are a communist, and apparely not smart enough to know that all efforts at trying to make communism work have resulted in copious bloodshed, or you understand that there are only a few few functions that Government MUST do and everything else is best provided for by the free markets. Given the repeated failure of govenrment and the FACT that your entire personal standard of living is delivered by the free market – not govenrment, only an idiot fails to grasp that we have a massively bloated inefficient govenrment that needs to be cut – MOSTLY that says little about those in government – though absolutely we are finding LOTS of crooks, that is still not the majority of those being RIF’d.
Those are likely good people, but we all will be better served if they take a productive job in the free market rather than a parasitic job in government.
“To me, Trump is a fundamentally invalid person to be in the White House in the first place”
You got your chance to express that feeling last november.
The majority of people rejected your feelings.
“which doesn’t take into consideration his destruction of our economy.”
The economy is doing fine.
“his refusal to listen to economists about tariffs”
The US economy and that of much of the world ran on much higher tariffs throughout the 19th century, Growth was higher than today.
Prior to Trump taking office – Tariffs were the norm for nearly all the world – except the US.
If as you say economists think they are so bad – why did the rest of the world have them ?
Regardless what we are seeing is negotiations towards almost the entire world going to near zero tariffs.
I am libertarian and generally opposed to Tariffs. But I am also not an idiot – a tariff is just a form of sales tax.
We have sales taxes throughout the country and no economist is screaming it is the end of the world.
Of all the forms of taxes we have sales taxes are just about the lest economically damaging.
“ignoring the economic damage that has already been done”
What damage ? Please cite actual damage.
You wanted the price of eggs down – they are down, gas is way down.
“alienating our allies and pushing unqualified people into jobs”
ROFL – after Biden no democrat should ever talk about unqualified people.
“Their main qualification is unquestioning loyalty to whatever whim Trump comes up with.”
Their main qualification is a shared set of values. One of the significant differences between this term and last, is that everything is NOT being run out of the whitehouse.
Trump has a large body of people who share his values who are acting inependently to addvance those values within their sphere.
“Hegseth is just one example— anyone else would have been canned long ago.”
Why – DOD is doing fine. Our military is putting a great deal of pressure on Iran, and that is assisting in negotiations to end Irans nuclear threat and bring them out of the state of a pariah nation.
Maybe Trump will not succeed. But we shoudl all hope he does,
And history tells us that betting against him is foolish.
“Bondi is another— who ever heard of firing a prosecutor for honestly answering a judge’s question?”
Several in DOJ have been fired for significan errors and ethical violations.
If you are not a moron you will KNOW from material readily available – such as court orders that the fired prosecutor you refered to was either knowingly lying to the judge, or badlyu informed.
Unfortunately it is not possible to fire this and several other judges who keep repeating the same false statements.
Garcia was found by the courts using a variety of evidence to be an MS13 member in 2019. He appealed and lost. He chose not to continue his appeals. That makes the finding of fact of that 2019 court FINAL and unreviewable.
Judges like Xinis are REQUIRED by the rules of “due process” to accept that finding. Yet she and others keep trying to relitigate it.
And you wnder why the country is so angry with your lawfare ?
“Yes, I am upset about these things as are the majority of the American people.”
Not any majority that actually exists.
“That’s not venom you perceive—-it’s patriotism and love for American values”
No Gigi, it is complete massive Trump derangement.
Nearly everything in Trump’s platform has been part of democrats platrforms over the past 40 years.
Fair Trade and the use of Tariffs were threats made by Obama, and Biden – Biden kept and increased Trump’s tariffs on china.
Pres. Obama put VP Biden in charge of efforts to cut govenrment spending – promising hundreds of billions in cuts.
Democrats have run against illegal immigration for decades.
The polarization of the parties on these issues is very recent.
So recent that you can easily find Biden and Obama and Clinton and Schumer saying the same things as Trump.
The difference is Trump does what he says he will do.
You are absolutely correct that Trump’s ego is enormous. He WANTS desparately to be remembered as a great president.
To do that he must fundimentally and positively transform american in the next 4 years.
His ego is one of our best hopes of fixing the mess that Biden wrought.
Gigi, you correctly grasped that Pope Francis reflected a change in the position of the catholic church regarding homosexuality.
But you do not grasp that almost the entire west – not just catholics, but conservatives and evangelicals have changes in the same way.
Some prejudice still exists – prejudices take centuries to elimiate – if ever, and today the most sexist, racist, people are on the left not right.
You rant about dignity – sorry – just not a right. Dignity is something you must earn.
You rant about marginization. While for the most part there is no effort to marginalize gay people.
At the same time – homosexuals make up about 5% of the population – that IS the margins.
Trans people make up about 0.3% of the population – that is the extreme margins.
Very few people want their children to be prejudiced.
What they do not want – is schools to waste enormous amounts of effort and time teaching THEIR children about what is litterally marginal sexuality. Teaching out kids about heterosexuality has proven a tremendous FAILURE. Why exactly should we expand on that failure ?
“In Mahmoud v. Taylor the religious wing of the SC will probably side with the plaintiffs in this case.”
With near certainty.
” Books with LGBTQ+ themes will be effectively banned from public schools in Maryland.”
Not at all what this case is about and not even a possibility based on the actual case.
That said – absolutely LQBTQ+ and ALL sexually themed material should be removed from schools.
We have experimented with sex education for children for 50+ years. We have absolutely no measureable societal benefit from that.
Why should we be expanding something that has abjectly failed, when during the same period we have seen a significant decline in students performance on the CORE purpose of education.
In what world do you get off think that kids that can not read, write or do basic math on graduating from HS (or even college) need to waste precious hours of education being indoctrinated in the sexual values of a tiny portion of people ?
We have FAILED at producing any measurable value for basic heterosxual education – why in gods name should we be adding alot of fringe nonsense ?
“Of course, this case is about book banning, not “parental rights”. This case has the potential to dramatically escalate book bans across the country by giving legal cover to discriminatory censorship, particularly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.”
It is HIGHLY unlikely this case will produce the BENEFICIAL effect that you are terrified of, of removing the plethora of FAILED nonsense that the left has added to our curicula, and returning schools to teaching the real skills that students need to function as adults.
Pick your favorite left wing nut values that you have pushedinto our education system – name ONE of those that has produced a measureable societal benefit – much less on to balance the loss in reading, writing, and match skills that we have seen over the past 50 years.
The FACT is that you have failed.
“Pen America has documented more than 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021–predominantly targeting books by and about LGBTQ+ people and books about people of color dealing with race and racism. It’s all been done in the name of “religious freedom”. But it’s censorship and attacks on “free speech”–a subject you seem to avoid when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights.”
With great difficulty I was able to find that the average number of books in a School library is 13,500.
Amazon has 50,000,000 titles available in 2025.
That means that the average school library “bans” 3500 books for each book that it includes.
I have zero problem with school libraries “banning” books on sex generally. I have no problems with schools entgirely removing sex education from their curiculum – the past 60 years have sex education have been a FAILURE.
I do not see a reason that schools should carry books on heterosexual sex – they have had 60 years to prove doing so would deliver a benefit and they have failed. All measurable facets of teen sexuality have gotten WORSE over that time. And the core fundimental education has suffered.
Those of you on the left do not seem to grasp that even in the rare instances where the use of FORCE aka govenrment can otherwise be justified in violation of the rights of individuals – that at the very least that use of FORCE MUST provide a measureable benefit.
You have failed at that.
So NO, I have no problems with “banning” nearly all of the 50M books on Amazon from school libraries, and restricting school ciriculuns to the foundations of education – to the 3R’s which once upon a time schools were able to affordably deliver on.
But further evidence of the core problems with education – not only does the average school library only have 13,500 books, But books are between 5-10% of school library budgets. I found all kinds of information on how large meadia rooms needed to be and what staffing should be and how many computers a library should have and what the counter heighs should be. It took a significant effort to find that school libraries spend next to nothing on books.
And we wonder what is wrong with our education.
But answering your question – it is perfectly appropriate for a school to ban Hustler.
“Intellectual growth means being exposed to a wide variety of reading material.”
Can you provide a single measurable statistic progressives changes to education have DELIVERED on this claim ?
“This is not served by banning books.”
A school library averages about 13,500 books. Amazon has 50M titles – whether you like it or not only 1 in 3000 books published are going to be in school libraries.
I would bet that I have nearly 13,500 books in my home. I have probably read more than half of those.
After you have gotten through the core books – the “classics” and even “modern classics” that should be required in every single school library – you have with near certainty run past your 13,500 books.
So No I have no problems with excluding the overwhelming majority of books from school libraries.
” If the majority on the right-wing SC supports the right of parents to “opt out” and effectively ban books with LGBTQ+ themes in Maryland’s public schools what message does that convey to other parents who think their kids should have the opportunity to read books with LGBTQ+ themes? ”
Unfortunately the issue before SCOTUS is th parents right to “opt out”.
The far more important issue is getting public schools OUT of all of this nonsense entirely.
When education can deliver graduates that can read, write and do math – we can talk about re-adding, history, and science to the curiculum.
“Polls show 67% of adult Americans say being LGBTQ+ should be accepted by society, including 59% of religious-affiliated adults. Two-thirds of US Catholics, Protestants and other Christians oppose using religious beliefs as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.”
SO WHAT ? That has absolutely nothing to do with this.
I completely agree that EVERYONE – straight or not, should have 100% of the same rights as every other person.
If we are going o have LGBTQ+ books in schools – then Jerry Falwell’s tomes on the immorality of homosexuality should be their too.
If we are going to let people with penis’s that claim to be women in women’s sports, restrooms, showers, then we should allow people with penis’s that claim to be men.
Equal rights – means Truly equal.
If you wish to Shill YOUR values in the classrom – then you MUST allow all other values in the classroom.
Or maybe you could just not be brain dead and grasp that the purpose of education it to provide students with the CORE skills necescary to survive and thrive as an adult.
Arguably normal sexual conduct and function MIGHT fit into that. But the evidence of the past 60+ years is that heterosexual sex education in schools has FAILED to deliver any measureable societal benefit.
We most certainly should not be wasting valuable educational hours indoctrinating students on abnormal sexuality when we have done an increasingly poor job of teaching them to read write and do math an when heterosexual education has proven of ZERO societal benefit.
Otherwise you are wasting time and money and you are leaving students WORSE off.
“Let’s be clear. The LGBTQ+ community is not going to disappear”
They have been arround for thousands of years, no one is expecting them to disapear.
But given that the overwhelming majority sexual orientation has seen ZERO benefit from 60+ years of sex education
Why do you think the sexual preferences of 4% of the population are relevant to a public school education ?
“because some small minority of religious zealots want to ban LGBTQ+ books from public schools.”
I think you will find that increasingly ALL parents want schools to focus on the BASICS of education – not fringe nonsense. We have seen a huge backlash among parents since Covid when remote education exposed parents to exactly what their kids were being taught and they did NOT like what the saw.
Once again you are on the wrong side of the issue.
Absolutely the majority want “equal rights” for all.
But that does NOT means they want MINORITY values to be taught in schools and FORCED on their kids against their will.
“Ultimately, children will find the books they want to read”
Of course they will. Which works totally against your point.
If you are a student with access to the internet – you can find out everything you want about all kinds of sexuality long before you are ready for it.
My 9 year old daughter 20 years ago googled “sex and pain” and got an education that was NOT at all what she was expecting.
Polls show that more people today engage in BDSM than are homosexual – should be be teaching Bondage in school ?
Should the work of the Marqui de Sade or the Story of O be in elementary school libraries ?
“It’s also a question of fairness. There are 2.6 million LGBTQ+ adults who are raising children the age of 18. ”
That would be less than 1% of the population. It is not even 5% of the student population.
In all Fairness – we should NOT be wasting limited educational time teaching fringe topics.
Reading Writing, Math – when those scores improve – we can re-add science and history.
“Many of those adults live in Maryland. Should their children be discriminated against by depriving them of reading books in school that might be of interest to them?”
They are not being discriminated against. The purpose of government is NOT to deliver everything anyone might want to everyone.
The purpose of govenrment is to secure actual rights against the infringement of others using force or fraud.
The LGBTQ+ community is not being discriminate against just because the limited education time of schools is not given to their unique whims and wishes.
“But you seem to think this case is about vindicating “parental rights”.”
Of course it is.
Contra Hillary Clinton, it is NOT a village that raises a child. There are good parents and bad parents.,
But there is no substitute for parents.
Whether you like it or not – it is parents that determine how their children are educated.
They MAY do so badly – that is on them. But the track record of government raising kids is a parade of Horribles.
Manson is what we get when the state raises children.
” No. This case is about imposing censorship and discrimination!”
Not in the slightest.
Schools are NOT a government created free speech forum.
YOUR OWN argument relies on depriving those who do not want this taught to their kids they right to effectively speak out. Your own argument relies on teachers administrators librarians deciding which of the 50M available books make the cut and get into the school library effectively banning 99,97% of all available books.
Again Schools are not a free speech forumn.
There are atleast 500,000 active pedophiles in the US today – do they get to have their own place in school curicula and library shelves ? Should NAMBLA get a few hours to provide sex education for K12 students each week ?
I’m not sure where you get your statistics. Wishful thinking on your part, california boy?
I’m reading the 2025 Trans adult population is listed as 1.4 million, while the nation’s total population is 340 million.
Can you do the math? https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/transgender-population-by-state
#. There will always be people repulsed by this agenda. When will it be time to kill them?
It should be parents’ rights to opt in if they want their children to learn about sexual materials in school. Sexual material should not be the default curriculum that every child is exposed to. Once again, education departments have gotten it @ss backwards.
NO, Had our experiments in sex education starting in the 60’s proved beneficial there would be an argument here.
They have not. They improved nothing, and many things go worse.
Sex education – not heterosexual, not homesexual, not any has any place in schools – because they have proven unable to do so with any benefit.
There should be no opt out, no opt in,
This just does not belong in public school.
That is not some religious conservative view, that is a view based on the fact that sex education has not delivered a measurable benefit.
The time we have to educate our children is limited.
And we have wasted alot of it to the effect that our kids can not perform the fundimentals.
I am for eliminating all public schools and public school funding.
But that is not happening.
The next best alternative is public funding, of the private educational choices of parents.
Private schools teach whatever they want.
Parents decide what schools to send their kids to.
We all love an indoctrinating government don’t we?
What’s the big deal. The little kiddies look cheery and bright every morning because they have been so properly groomed. If the parents don’t like their children’s grooming they can just take the kids away like in California. You can’t just whistle past the trans for kiddies day in the school library every Thursday. This is for real folks.
@Thinkitthrough
I can sympathize with your cynicism to an extent, but no, just no. We draw a line here.
Good. I am not opposed to consenting adults doing whatever they do, but this never had a place in classrooms, certainly not for kids as young as *three* who don’t even know what their belly button is, and it is increasingly more evidence that a portion of a certain cohort are simply NOT WELL. Throw in doing it against parental consent – f*** you.
May this end the madness and the lies of ‘book banning’ for good. Modern leftists or those adjacent who simply never learned any better under the age of 40 are a plague, and the people that raised them should be absolutely ashamed of themselves; too bad seppuku isn’t a thing in America as there is no excuse but reticence, or brain-deadness, or a sheer lack of conscious morality of any kind. One can create narcissists through abuse, sure, but you can also create them through coddling or simply not giving a sh**.
“[We gave you] a republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin
_________________
You couldn’t.
________________
“We the People of the United States…Secure the Blessings of Liberty to OURSELVES and OUR POSTERITY….”
– The American Founders
_____________________________
You didn’t.
“John Roberts sat around and did nothing while U.S. citizens were thrown in solitary confinement without a trial for years, but when a foreign terrorist illegal was deported, Roberts suddenly became very concerned with due process.”
Yep, he said nothing. He’s pathetic.
“When people were denied the right to attend church, did John Roberts stay up all night to issue injunctions preventing this denial of an explicit constitutional right by state level functionaries?”
Nope. Again, Roberts said nothing.
John Roberts has let DC judges act like dictators.
It’s time to do away with DC courts. DO IT NOW, Congress.
What is this except tyranny of fools hoping to take away rights? You dirty scoundrels no not what’s good for your children. We are teaching acceptance of loathe behavior to 3–10-year-olds and you must accept it, SO THERE!
OT
THE IMPARTIAL 1954 SUPREME COURT CONCURRED AND DID NOT USURP AND EXERCISE EXECUTIVE POWER.
THE PARTIAL 2025 SUPREME COURT DISSENTED AND USURPED AND EXERCISED EXECUTIVE POWER.
AMERICA DOES NOT NEED A PRESIDENT—AMERICA HAS THE OMNIPOTENT JUDICIAL BRANCH.
ALL HAIL HIS EMINENCE GENERAL SECRETARY AND KING JOHN ROBERTS OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S JURISTOCRACY!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Operation Wetback”
“Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, a retired United States Army lieutenant general and head of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The program was implemented in June 1954 by U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell.[1] The operation used tactics to remove Mexican immigrants from the United States.
“Operation Wetback was primarily a response to pressure from a broad coalition of farmers and business interests concerned with the effects of illegal immigration from Mexico.[3] Upon implementation, Operation Wetback gave rise to arrests and deportations by the U.S. Border Patrol.”
– Wikipedia
Just think, it all started with “Crazy Abe” Lincoln, who completely disregarded the law, imposed his dictatorship of brutal martial law, and turned America into a freak show.
Look around you at what was once the America of its Founders, abounding with maximal individual freedom along with a severely limited and restricted government.
When people ask me about my favorite presidents, he’s not on my list, either.
The hill Dems have chosen to die on:
– forced LGBTQ propaganda in public schools
– DEI
– men in women’s sports, locker rooms, and showers
– MS-13
– open borders (fentanyl crisis, human trafficking, violent crime)
– mass vandalism
– defund the police
– endless wars
– lawfare
– record illiteracy
– judicial tyranny
#. They won’t die on those hills . Those are all acceptable now because the time is exalt the marginalized minority. It’s force fed. To many it’s injurious to the soul. Those not accepting it are called hillbillies.
Just an observation…
BREAKING
Trump announces he is a candidate for Pope.
“No one knows more about poping than me” he said.
Yes indeed, he popes his pants several times a day.
“Hundreds of cardinals and bishops came to me, with tears in their eyes, saying please sir, please accept the papacy. Only you can make Catholicism great again!” said Trump
He’ll pope like nobody has ever seen before.
I hear he will take the name Pope Kumquat I.
Melania likes the celibacy part.
Another child has entered the chat room Typical lib
Sorry, these posts were humorous. While fake, most of those on the left failed to grasp that they were NOT that insulting.
The catholic church desparately needs a pope to “make catholicism great again”
I have no problems with joking about Pope Trump. it is fun.
I have a queery ——-
why are these “storybooks” necessary in a school curriculum??????
the county has an answer
For the purposes of communist propagandization and indoctrination.
All Americans must be good communists.
Inclusivity
The American Thesis is Freedom and Self-Reliance.
Inclusivity is the Communist Manifesto as “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Thanks, Karl.
Because when a government teacher doesn’t have the ability to successfully teach math, reading, and science, what is there left to do?
Because the nation of white Christian slavery must be destroyed and their trash constitution.
Lets assume that this is a nation of white christian slavery. It is also the most successful nation on earth ever.
It is the most successful constitution on earth ever.
Do you have an example of a nation of any signficance that has performed better ?
Americans will consider giving you the oportunity to destroy this country and trash this constitution – when you manage to prove you can do better.
So far you have failed abysmally in every attempt.
You say this is a white nation – can you name a single nation anywhere in the world with more racial diversity ?
You say it is a christian nation – can you name a single nation anywhere in the world with more religious diversity ?
#. It didn’t work for me a black trans lesbian part time pedo part time necrophiliac, hillbilly John Say.
Devil’s advocate.
“It didn’t work for me a black trans lesbian part time pedo part time necrophiliac”
Of course it did.
Where else in the world could you be a ” black trans lesbian part time pedo part time necrophiliac” ?
Exactly! Since 1863, you illegal alien foreign invaders sin by way of coveting what Americans have, bearing false witness regarding related issues, and stealing this once-great nation. A steep price must be exacted.
# . Because religious objections to homosexuality, pedophilia, mutilation must be trained and educated out of future generations. Duh
I forgot to add, your God sends me to he!!
Just 30% of Illinois 4th graders read at proficiency standards
(The Center Square) – Illinois Republican state Rep. Dan Ugaste is speaking out against a “nationwide literacy crisis” that counts Illinois among the more than 40 states where just one out of every three fourth grade students are now meeting reading proficiency standards.
Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress report card shows that in Illinois, just 30% of fourth graders are hitting such standards. In a 2024 national exam, the state’s students finished 29th in the country for the percentage of fourth graders at or above proficiency.
By: Glenn Minnis | The Center Square ~ Apr 18, 2025
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_d91c7486-7950-4db0-8004-b1eff240b65c.html
National Assessment of Educational Progress report card:
[Home Page] nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
Reading Assessment:
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=8
Math Assessment:
[Link] nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=4
#. Just 30%…in which language?
Children can’t read or execute a mathematical equation, but they know freaks of nature and unnatural aberrations well.
Whatever did you do when you told them that weird people who engage in unnatural acts and cannot produce babies may enjoy the institution of marriage of normal human beings?
It’s injurious to the soul
It appears that when government school teachers and their administrators do not have the skills to successfully teach mathematics, science, and reading to their students, they default to “teaching” gender ideology and sexuality (along with environmental/climate “justice”, and the like). No wonder Harvard and many other universities need to offer entering freshman remedial courses in math. Taxpayers are within their right to demand better results from the public educational establishment. Educational vouchers is the “tough love” that may right the sinking ship of public education.
Want to see a real nightmare. Look at the Oregon schools. They don’t even care if you can do simple math.
Insures destruction of the United States. They can wait. KGB infiltrates…they preyed upon the weakest and now children.
It’s that moment in time, the prophecy, whomever shall harm the children…
The K-12 public schools are run for the benefit of the unionized teachers and for the Democrat Party. Reform, given the current funding mechanisms (school taxes), is impossible. Instead, do what civilized countries, like Sweden do. We should continue to collect school taxes but instead of turning those billions over to the unions return them to the parents in the form of education vouchers. There would then be a list of qualified schools, including public, private and religious. All would have to meet strict criteria establish by an impartial regulatory body. Parents would select the schools they prefer.
If the public schools had to compete I believe they would shape right up.
Teachers are tools…
Maybe one of the justices will ask the district this simple question, “In all seriousness, why can’t you just let kids be kids?”
Not a chance!