School Choice
& Religious Liberty
Know your rights.
Much of the work being done to protect religious liberty, especially as it relates to school choice, has a legislative focus. KCES is so thankful for the diligence of these great Americans who lobby Congress and state legislatures for school choice. Our perspective, however, is very different. We believe the US Constitution already guarantees religious liberty for citizens. We also understand that no education is possible without underlining beliefs, religious perspectives. All education is inherently religious. So how can the government protect the religious liberty of every school administrator, teacher, parent, and student while funding education? There seems only one answer. Schools must decide and disclose what belief system undergirds their program. They must hire and train educators that agree with this belief system. Government, when required to provide publicly funded education, must distribute these resources equitably. Parents must be empowered to choose the school operating with the belief system they choose for their child’s education. This parental choice will create a free market for schools and dispel the monopoly of “public school”. Finally, government must equitably fund the parental choice of school, without regard t the school’s religious positions. This is Constitutional religious liberty in education. Kyrie encourages individuals, schools, and other organizations to seek their Constitutionally-protected right to religious liberty in school choice.
The Consitutional Right to Religious Liberty
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects religious liberty. This most basic of American liberties is continually denied to the vast majority of students, parents, teachers, and school administrators in the United States.
This constitutional violation is based on a false notion that education can be devoid of religion. We believe this to be a fundamentally flawed idea.
A Violation of Your Rights
All education is built upon beliefs and values. It cannot be otherwise. Despite this, public education in the United States supports only one belief system, one religion.
The signers of the first Humanist Manifesto stated that Secular Humanism was their religion and they used the public education system to propagate their beliefs and values against the beliefs of the majority of Americans.
As a result, Secular Humanism has become the state-sponsored church in the United States. This is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution.
