The big news out of the U.S. Supreme Court today is, of course, the Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision returns the issue of abortion to the states and as such will have little impact on access to abortion in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom has declared the state a “safe haven” for women seeking abortions and the legislature is already fast-tracking a measure to ensconce abortion in the state constitution — although Californians could see an uptick in taxes to support a new wave of state-sponsored abortion tourism. 

However, another Supreme Court decision on “choice” this week has the potential to have a huge impact in the Golden State. On Tuesday, the Court affirmed that state programs that provide tuition assistance to families to send their children to the school of their choice cannot discriminate against religious schools. If California voters pass a school choice initiative, families would have access to the vast network of high-quality private religious schools throughout the state. Read more about the Carson v. Makin case following the update on CPC’s Legislative Summit this week in Sacramento.

Parent group leaders come together in Sacramento for CPC Summit

Parents’ rights and education reform leaders, teachers, and school board members from more than a dozen counties across California came together in Sacramento this week for California Policy Center’s First Annual Legislative Summit. 

Over the two-day event, Summit attendees heard from key voices in the education reform and parents’ rights movement, participated in training sessions on legislative and grassroots advocacy strategies, networked with other advocates and met with legislators at the state Capitol. 

A few highlights from this action-packed event:

• Education expert at Pacific Research Institute, Lance Izumi, offered introductory comments after leading the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

• Investigative journalist Katy Grimes, editor of the influential California Globe, kicked off the morning session with insights from her many years of covering the state legislature and illuminated the challenges of getting the mainstream media to report on the issues that matter to parents.

• Corey DeAngelis, a leading voice in the national school choice and education reform movement, briefed attendees on the most significant advances and ongoing challenges in the education reform movement, providing rebuttal arguments to common misconceptions and objections. He also discussed the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week that affirmed religious schools must be included in state school choice programs. 

• Assemblyman Kevin Kiley explained the stranglehold that teachers’ unions have on Sacramento politicians and what parents can do to get legislators to support students and families instead of union lobbyists. 

• Lance Christensen, CPC’s Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs, interviewed Assemblywoman Megan Dahle, Vice Chair of the Assembly Education Committee. Dahle shared her personal journey of going from mom and small business owner to school board member then Assemblymember — and wife of the Republican candidate for California Governor Senator Brian Dahle — to an audience with a significant number of grassroots leaders who are driving new and aspiring candidates to run for school board and other local offices across the state.

• Lance also led an in-depth training session for attendees on understanding the state legislature and how to engage in effective policymaking strategies. 

• CPC’s general counsel Craig Alexander and Jon Riches, general counsel for the Goldwater Institute, walked parents through the process of how to effectively file a Public Records Act Request (PRA) to access information on everything from teacher training and classroom curricula at their local school to school budgets.

On Thursday, Lance led parent leaders on a tour of the state Capitol, and Summit attendees met with legislators and their staffs in both the Senate and Assembly to discuss the issues that are personally important to attendees. The networking opportunities at the Summit, including a cocktail reception after Wednesday’s event made possible by the generous support of CPC donors, further strengthened the relationships of many parent group leaders who had previously met only virtually. 

“For many parents' rights advocates, the Capitol is either an incredibly frustrating place or an impenetrable fortress of poor public policy,” said Lance Christensen. “Gathering leaders from so many counties in the state broke some of the tension many have felt while being isolated from their cohorts in the cause of protecting our children. There is a certain connectedness that can only be achieved speaking face-to-face and walking into meetings side-by-side.”

At CPC, we’re already looking forward to next year’s Summit. We hope to see everyone that attended return next year — and if you weren’t able to make it this time, be sure to join us next summer!

SCOTUS decision is a big win for school choice

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decisive win for school choice and the First Amendment this week in Carson v. Makin.

At issue in the case was Maine’s educational choice system, a program for students who live in rural areas in the state that don’t run public schools. Maine’s scholarship program allows families to use state funds to pay tuition at the local private school of their choice, but the religious schools chosen by the parents in the case were excluded.

Maine’s Department of Education argued that the program did not violate the First Amendment because (in theory) funds could be used for a religious school so long as the school’s curriculum is not “designed to proselytize and inculcate children with a particular faith.” In other words, parents could use the scholarship money to send their children to a religious school, but only if nothing religious is taught. 

“There is nothing neutral about Maine’s program,” Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, explained. “The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools — so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion.”

The Carson case expanded on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue. In that case, the High Court considered a tax-credit program that allowed Montana to provide scholarships for assistance with private school tuition. After the Montana Supreme Court struck down the program, citing the “no-aid” provision (aka: Blaine amendment) of the State Constitution that prohibits aid to a school controlled by a “church, sect, or domination,” parents sued. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Montana parents and held that the application of the no-aid provision discriminated against reli­gious schools in violation of the Free Exercise Clause. 

In Espinoza, Justice Roberts, again writing for the majority, wrote, “A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

By expanding parental choice to include faith-based schools, the Supreme Court rulings are game changers for the school choice movement. A 2022 poll of parents of school-age children found that 69 percent of parents say they “strongly support, support, or somewhat support school choice, with 31 percent indicating strong support.” Support for school choice was highest among Black parents (73 percent overall support) and Hispanic or Latino parents (72 percent). Notably, 71 percent of parents in cities or urban areas indicated support for school choice, 82 percent of parents in rural areas, and 68 percent of parents in the suburbs. 

That should make the teachers unions very, very worried.
 

Quote of the Week