Parents Have Rights As Well as Responsibilities

​Sunday is National Parents’ Day, a day to recognize the sacrifices made by the 63 million parents in the United States. Signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, National Parents’ Day could be treated lightly – like so many other legislative honorifics, such as National Wine and Cheese Day (July 25) or National Bagelfest Day (July 26).
 
But Sunday’s observance calls for deeper reflection.
 
The courts, the media, and the culture focus on the responsibilities of parents, which are intense and last for years. In no other relationship is a person so bound by law and custom to see to the nutrition, clothing, education, and care of another person. Fortunately, for most of us, these things and so much more are given freely, even enthusiastically.
 
Many educators and politicians, however, seem to have a growing hostility to the flip side of responsibility – the rights of parents. Parents have many rights, including the right to see that the values they hold dear are the ones their children grow up with. Indeed, the First Amendment guarantees the right of every American – including parents – to expressive activity. And that includes not only what we say, write, post, and support, but also our efforts to perpetuate our values across generations.
 
Thus, for example, public-school parents have the right to support their children in joining the after-school club of their choice, whether it is about science, a film club, art club, or faith. And yet, regarding the latter, parents have twice had to go to federal court to obtain reversals of educators’ efforts, from Washington, D.C., to San Jose, California, to block the students of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes from holding after-school meetings. In the latter case, Judge Kenneth K. Lee of the Ninth Circuit found evidence that educators were emitting a “stench of animus” toward religious belief.
 
This animus is also seen in Montgomery County, Maryland, where Muslim and Christian parents tried and failed in court to be allowed to keep their preschool and elementary students from being taught unnecessarily explicit lessons about sexuality – the mere exposure to which violates their families’ religious beliefs.
 
Of course, parents with purely secular values also have the right to perpetuate their values across generations. Yet they generally face no such discrimination. The stench of animus that Judge Lee found leads instead to the apparent determination of some to run roughshod over parental rights mostly when it comes to religion. There seems a desire by some in the educational establishment to stamp everyone with uniform values, instead of embracing the pluralistic nature of American society.
 
With so many leaders of public education determined to shape children with a cookie cutter of uniformity, parents are increasingly exercising their rights by leaving the system altogether. This rebellion against the cookie cutter has led to a movement in a dozen states to embrace universal school choice. To be sure, private schools in these voucher systems must still adhere to state standards in the teaching of science, math, history, English, and social studies. But school choice leaves room for pluralism, whether the school imparts religious values or not.
 
The rights of parents, and how they intersect with their First Amendment rights, is something to reflect on – and celebrate – this Sunday.