The protection and consideration of the First Amendment becomes particularly challenging when trying to determine religious freedom and expression’s place in public schools (and if there should even be any in the first place). This tension is at the center of Woolard v. Thurmond, in which a group of parents at two California charter schools, Visions in Education and Blue Ridge Academy, filed a lawsuit against the two schools, as well as various of their officials, in October of 2023 claiming the schools refusal to buy religious curricular materials and instructions was an unconstitutional discrimination against religion, and therefore, a breach against their rights pertaining to the Free Exercise Clause. For context, in 1992, California began allowing the establishment of charter schools, these being public schools that are funded with public money, but are run by individuals. It is important to note, however, that while some charter schools are in-person, both Visions in Education and Blue Ridge Academy are not, meaning that parents play an integral part of their children’s education. To this point, as parents primarily homeschool their children, aside from a handful of online classes, the plaintiffs claim is that they should have some agency over the curriculum and the materials they should be allowed to request and in turn, teach to their children, in this case this being religious material. This being said, while the parent’s perspectives were acknowledged, their requests were denied by the schools based upon California state rules that provide: “sectarian or denominational doctrine shall not be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly, in any of the common schools of this State,” subsequently bringing on the lawsuit.
After being rejected by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, this case was brought to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where on September 11, 2025, the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision to reject the plaintiffs argument on the basis that the plaintiffs had no ground on which they can demand religious material to be provided as part of their education in public schools that are paid for with taxpayer money. Specifically, the plaintiffs' claim of religious discrimination and an infringement upon their freedom of exercise was rejected by the courts as they, nor their children, were being “categorically excluded” from any public benefit. Rather, California’s public schools were required to provide a secular education, meaning that the plaintiffs were not being denied any public benefit because of their religion, and that ultimately California’s laws on public school education were neutral, and therefore, non-discriminatory. With this reasoning, ultimately, the courts rejected the parents' arguments under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.
The central question being raised in this case is whether a public school violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause when it refuses to buy proposed religious educational material to religious students and educational facilitators, simply because the materials are religious? Personally, I do not think public school boards refusing to buy religious material to be taught is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause. Continually, while I do agree with and support the courts Free Exercise reasoning, and agree with their ruling to reject the parents' lawsuit, I think there is also another First Amendment concern that the courts surprisingly did not address. This being if they did support the parents’ argument, publicly purchasing religious material for one's curriculum could potentially pose a violation of the Establishment Clause. Regardless of this, however, I think the most compelling argument made by the courts is that of neutrality, as making sure public education remains secular in all capacities helps ensure that the government is not endorsing or establishing any religion.
This being said, I do understand the perspective of the parents in this case, as they are the ones teaching their children. In this context, the parents weren’t asking public school teachers to promote any sort of religion, or teach it in schools, they were parents in independent study programs who held a major responsibility for educating their own children. I think there is an important distinction between the government teaching religion in public schools and an individual, religious family being allowed to use religious materials within a public school system.
Nevertheless, as I mentioned before, while there is this distinction, the main point is that the programs are funded by the public, and an extension of government speech, and in my opinion this outweighs the parents’ free exercise argument. In the end, public funding matters because the parents are not asking to teach religion to their children privately, or separately from the state provided curriculum, they are asking to be provided the religious materials as part of the education provided to them by the state, which is, in my opinion, a possible establishment of religion, and not a violation of their ability to exercise their religion, as they are not being prevented from purchasing and using religious materials independently of the government supported and supplied curriculum.
3 comments:
I agree with your argument, especially about the importance of public funding in this case. Even though the parents are the ones teaching their kids at home, they are still part of a public charter school and are using public funds for their education. I don’t think the school should have to pay for religious materials that individual parents want to use. To me, not funding religious materials seems like the more neutral option because the school isn’t getting involved in anyone’s religious beliefs. The parents can still practice whatever religion they want and teach it to their kids on their own, but I think that should be separate from what the public school is paying for.
I think you provided a very well-rounded argument. The parents have a Free Exercise argument, as they are being denied religious education materials. With that being said, they are not being denied the ability to practice their religion outside of a government funded space. The government has a stronger argument to keep these materials out of the schools that they fund because providing them could raise constitutional concerns, specifically establishment clause concerns. Which I agree with your argument on. The government using taxpayer's dollars to purchase materials of religion, the government could be seen as promoting one religion over another, calling into question neutrality. I also agree with the court's rule of neutrality, the parent still are recieving the benefits of an education, they just can not require the government to pay for religious materials. I do understand the parent's argument and the complexity of the parents being the ones doing much of the teaching, but I do agree with the court's decision.
I agree with your argument, especially your point that public schools need to stay neutral on religion. Parents do do most of the teaching themselves, they although are still part of a public charter school that uses public money. I think there is a difference between stopping parents from teaching religion and simply not paying for the religious materials they want to use. Parents are still free to buy the materials they want and teach their children about their religion. I also found your point about the Establishment Clause interesting because if the school paid for religious materials, it could raise concerns about the government supporting religion instead of just staying neutral. At the same time, I still understand the parents argument because they do most of the teaching and probably feel they should have more control over what they actually teach. This is a tough one because this case shows how difficult it can be to balance religious freedom with also keeping public education neutral.
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