In a sad but unsurprising opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the U.S. Supreme Court has given parents the right to opt their children out of classes when instruction or materials include LGBTQ+ themes. This devastating decision undermines the promise of public education to see and value all our students, places an undue burden on classroom educators at all levels, and attacks the heart of our democracy.
The Montgomery County Education Association’s 14,000 members care deeply about respecting all the faith traditions that students hold in our demographically diverse county, which is why we recently supported state legislation that, if passed, would have expanded the number of observed Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) holidays, so that every child feels seen and valued. The high court’s decision purports to protect religious diversity, which was never truly threatened. Instead, this decision could easily become a slippery slope, resulting in parents removing their children from classes for almost any reason if they find classroom content objectionable. It is easy to imagine parents who believe in creationism electing to remove their children from science classes teaching evolution or choosing to remove their children from lesson plans that include content highlighting the scientific achievements of Marie Curie because it conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs forbidding women from working outside of the home, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor warns in her searing dissent.
This decision will intensify the burden on educators, who are already at capacity, as they try to navigate the various opt-out mazes throughout the day. Can you imagine the challenges that a first-grade teacher will face if different parents each opt their child out of a different portion of Language Arts, and multiple students are opted out at different times? When parents decide that their child should be opted out of a class, where will this student go? Who will supervise and teach this student?
Furthermore, the operational costs of complying with this ruling could potentially have significant chilling effects, as many school districts and their governing school boards elect to simply remove LGBTQ+ books from their curricula. Erasure is easier than inviting potentially costly litigation, resulting in de facto book banning, which was ostensibly not at issue in this decision.
During my over 30 years of teaching, I have witnessed ongoing attacks on public education and educators. Despite the court’s ruling, Montgomery County’s public school educators — like educators in other school districts across the country — will continue to provide our students with a well-rounded education regardless of which political party is in power. And we know, as educators, that our students are resilient and will persist in their efforts to succeed.
Unfortunately, these attacks, collectively, make it harder for public schools to operate and less appealing as a place to choose a career. Don’t be surprised when would-be, or even current educators decide to opt out.
David Stein is president of the Montgomery County Education Association.
