Maryland’s Assault on Private Education

But the bill’s passage undercuts a common argument from some skeptics on the right of school choice. Such critics often warn that accepting government funds will inevitably lead to government control. They say that with government shekels come government shackles.Yet families in Maryland can now get the shackles without the shekels. The state is clearly determined to impose heavy-handed regulations on private schools regardless of whether they participate in any voucher or tax-credit program.House Bill 649 empowers the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights to investigate complaints against private schools. The proposal creates a private right of action that allows leftists to file lawsuits against schools they accuse of violating the new standards.>>> The Gatekeepers Are Failing: Why We Must Reform Higher Education Accreditation.The bill prohibits discrimination based on gender identity among other categories, with no worthwhile religious exemptions, meaning religious schools would be forced to embrace transgender insanity in their admissions and operations. The law offers no meaningful religious exemptions.This proposal will almost certainly face court challenges, primarily for violating the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. Courts have long protected the right of religious institutions to operate according to their faith and forcing religious schools to affirm current gender ideology contradicts that protection at its core.The situation reveals the real threat to educational freedom. The problem is not school choice, but authoritarian politicians who hate both school choice and parental rights. Lawmakers who oppose letting parents choose better schools for their children are the same ones eager to dictate what private schools can teach and whom they can admit.Experience across the states confirms the pattern. States with more school choice tend to have more freedom from homeschool regulations. The same states that push to regulate homeschoolers also block school choice.Lawmakers in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey have advanced proposals to tighten government control over families who educate their children at home. Illinois Democrats killed their school-choice program that was serving over 9,000 low-income children back in 2023. They then turned around and pushed a proposal to regulate homeschoolers despite massive opposition from parents. New York maintains some of the worst homeschooling laws in the nation when it comes to parental rights, yet the state has zero school-choice programs.Freedom-loving politicians prove they can walk and chew gum at the same time, too.States that have expanded school choice in recent years have also moved to deregulate homeschooling. Wyoming passed a universal school-choice bill and reduced homeschool regulations in the process. Ohio enacted universal school choice in 2023 and deregulated homeschooling at the same time. Missouri expanded school choice in 2024 and deregulated homeschooling in the same bill by no longer allowing school districts to call in the sheriff’s office on homeschool families.New Hampshire just passed universal school choice, and Republicans in the state are pushing in the current session to make it one of the best states for homeschool freedom. The Home Education Freedom Act—a proposal to eliminate nearly all homeschool regulations—has already passed their House by a vote of 174 to 166.>>> Overturning an Outlandish Supreme Court Ruling Is the Only Way To Fix EducationSchool choice actually helps reduce the likelihood of government regulation. The approach builds a broader coalition of parents and organizations ready to fight back against overreach.Politics comes down to organized interests competing to achieve their goals and school choice empowers freedom fighters to lock arms and defeat the socialists who want more government control over education.The fight for parental rights has deep roots in American law. Oregon tried to ban private education altogether in 1922. The Supreme Court struck down that law in 1925. The justices famously ruled that “the child is not the mere creature of the State.” Current Supreme Court precedent and the composition of the court favor parental rights, but we cannot rely on the judiciary forever. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.The ultimate victory will come from fighting the battle on multiple fronts. Parents must make it political suicide for politicians to cross them. School-choice programs remain voluntary and parents can weigh the costs and benefits for their own children each year. We should not make the perfect the enemy of the good.Parents in Maryland now face government shackles without any financial support from the state, which should settle the debate once and for all. Government control of education expands whenever authoritarians hold power. The solution is more educational freedom, not less.Expanding school choice strengthens the coalition for liberty, which would equip parents to resist the very overreach on display in Maryland.