U.S. senators defend home-schooling parents’ right to religious curriculum

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, and Sen. Ted Budd, R-North Carolina, filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of home-schooling parents’ right to use a religious-based curriculum in the classroom.

The senators’ amicus brief comes after a lower court decision in Woolard v. Thurmond that ruled home-school independent-study programs are public-school programs.

“As part of California’s publicly funded independent-study programs, parents can teach their own children in their own homes with limited oversight from a private, nonprofit corporation operating a charter school,” the brief said . “And subject to general state standards, parents can choose any curriculum they want for their homeschooling—with one exception: religion. That overt discrimination—which Respondents say is required by California’s Blaine Amendment—clearly violates the Constitution. And it is preposterous to say, as did the Ninth Circuit, that homeschooling parents are actually state actors.”

“This amicus brief argues that specifically restricting the rights of parents to use faith-based curriculum is unconstitutional, and I am hopeful that this argument will help the Supreme Court to…