The present national debate over the indoctrination of public school students in controversial theories and practices — such as Critical Race Theory and social and emotional learning — and the desire of objecting parents to seek relief, may give rise to a values choice movement. After all, the liberty interest and ultimate concern at stake when parents choose an education for their children is to transmit the values they believe will yield the best life outcomes for their children and society.
On the morning of December 8, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that could decide whether parents have a constitutional right to equal access to public funds for what they believe is the best values-based education for their children. The case involves a Maine program that provides families living in a township without a public high school with access to public funds for the education of their children at the public or private high schools of their choice. In Carson v. Makin, the Court will decide whether, in awarding the financial aid, Maine officials can discriminate against families who choose to secure a values-based education for their children at non-public schools that teach students from a “traditionally religious” perspective.
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