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 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.
11 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.
I agree with your conclusion. As mentioned above, the lines do become blurred as these children are not being taught by public school teachers. If they were, the teachers would be acting as agents of the state, and using public funds to finance the availability of religious materials would certainly be unconstitutional. However, charter schools seem to fall within this liminal space of the public and private sector of education. While the government can fund certain aspects of charter education, I do not think that it is the government’s responsibility to supply religious textbooks to charter schools, even if they seem compulsory to the curriculum there, and providing them would be a breach of the establishment clause.
I agree with your point that the public school should stay neutral when it comes to religion. Even though the parents are doing most of the teaching themselves, the program is still funded with public money. I think there is an important difference between allowing parents to teach religion and requiring the school to pay for religious materials. The parents can still practice and teach their religion without the government directly funding it.
I definitely agree with your argument. The issue is especially complicated due to the fact that the parents are the primary individuals doing the teaching. I would agree that the state is not required to provide religious materials to parents in order to offer that as part of the curriculum. If parents want religion to be a part of their child's education, religious private education exists, or parents who continue with homeschooling/chartering have full freedom to offer those materials as an "extracurricular" educational experience not funded by the state.
I agree with your argument on this case. Since it is a public school, the state's main priority should be making sure public education remains secular in all capacities. This ensures that the government is not endorsing or establishing any religion. I understand the frustration of the religious parents since they are primarily responsible for their children's education. However, just because the public school won't provide the religious materials does not mean the parents cannot use outside materials to educate their children on their preferred religion. Again since the money is funded with taxpayer money, providing the parents with religious materials would be a violation to those who are not religious but still required to pay these tax dollars.
I really liked your point about the difference between public school teaching religion and parents choosing to use/teach religious materials themselves. I can understand why the parents felt like their religious freedom was being limited but at the same time I can understand that it gets complicated because it is public money and public resources.
I agree with your argument, especially the part where you said that this could also pose an issue to the establishment clause. If the charter school did provide funding for purchasing certain types of religious material that would then be taught to the students, this would not be showing government neutrality. I also believe that the intent of how the material is going to be taught matters. If the parents want religious material to teach their kids about different religions, then that is a lot different than if the parents want religious material to preach a specific religion to their kids.
I agree with your conclusion that this is not a violation of the free exercise clause since public funds would technically be paying for the religious textbooks, and education by extension. I also find it surprising that the court “did not address” the potential violation of the Establishment Clause, especially since I feel like that is a clearer way of addressing the parents’ perceived violation of Free Exercise.
I agree with you conclusion that allowing charter schools to purchase religious materials for education is ultimately unconstitutional. I don't think that the establishment clause is necessarily relevant, though. The parents raise an important, though misguided, point that independent, publicly funded schools not paying for religious materials keeps them from freely exercising their right to educate their child. This is sufficient reasoning for the court to argue against.
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