Family Council Supports Giving Parents, Children Options in Education

Education, Legislation, , ,

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Wednesday Family Council announced the pro-family organization supports passing a school choice measure in Arkansas this year.

Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “Our organization has always believed families deserve options when it comes to education. Home schooling is a great example of how giving families options can help their children flourish. Family Council has supported home schooling for more than 25 years, because it empowers parents to give their son or their daughter the education that’s right for them. Home schooling in Arkansas has been incredibly successful as a result. Governor Sanders and members of the General Assembly intend to pass good school choice legislation this year. We want to work with our friends to pass legislation that will help Arkansas families without regulating nonpublic school students.”

Cox said many Arkansans are bothered by changes they see in public education. “A lot of families feel like public education has deteriorated over the years, and they don’t like the direction it’s heading. For those families, school choice legislation could give them real alternatives that will help their children succeed. This is a critical issue for families, and our organization plans to address it.”

Family Council is a conservative education and research organization based in Little Rock with a mission of promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values.

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Heritage Foundation Ranks Arkansas #13 in Education Freedom

Education,

The Heritage Foundation recently ranked Arkansas in thirteenth place on its Education Freedom Report Card.

The report analyzed laws from all 50 states — with special focus on school choice, transparency in education, regulatory freedom, and education spending.

Among other things, the report card noted that:

  • Arkansas has rejected Common Core-aligned tests.
  • The state does not apply critical race theory to “diversity training” for educators.
  • Parents may choose among private, charter, and public schools.

The report card identified different ways that Arkansas could improve its education freedoms, including:

  • Establishing education savings accounts.
  • Expanding private-school-choice programs.
  • Making it easier to open and operate charter schools.
  • Giving families more choices among traditional public schools.

The report card also found that one in four of Arkansas’ public school districts with more than 15,000 students employ a “chief diversity officer.”

Read The Report Card Here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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U.S. Supreme Court: Government Can’t Discriminate Against Students At Religious Schools

Education, ,

The following is a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom.

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Carson v. Makin that the state of Maine cannot exclude students who attend religious schools from a government program in which they are otherwise qualified. Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom and Jones Day had argued for that result in a friend-of-the-court brief they filed on behalf of the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty.

Maine had prohibited families from using funds from a state tuition program—designed for students who don’t have access to a local public school—at private religious schools that incorporated a curricular faith perspective.

“When the government offers parents school choice, it can’t take away choices that are deemed ‘too religious’ or withhold funds from those who choose religious schools when the state offers those funds to everybody else,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “Today’s decision from the Supreme Court affirms our country’s abiding principle of religious liberty and, importantly, allows Maine parents the freedom to send their children to schools that align with their beliefs.”

The Supreme Court’s decision built upon its previous rulings in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, a case in which ADF attorneys successfully argued before the high court that a state may not discriminate against a religious school in awarding grants to improve playground safety.

“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause,” the high court concluded, emphasizing that this does not mean that a state “must” fund religious education. “But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.” And this is true no matter whether the state disqualifies a school because of its religious status or because the school integrates religion into its curriculum. “Any attempt to give effect to such a distinction by scrutinizing whether and how a religious school pursues its educational mission would also raise serious concerns about state entanglement with religion and denominational favoritism.”

ADF attorneys are currently litigating similar cases involving Vermont officials discriminating against religious schools in E.W. v. French, A.M. v. French, and A.H. v. French. Jones Day attorneys Yaakov M. Roth, Anthony J. Dick, and Meredith Holland Kessler served as co-counsel for the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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