Restrictions on private school reopenings thwart desperate parents

Private schools are the latest to be hit in the intersecting conflict of religious liberty, a public health crisis, and elected officials. Many states, but especially California, are treating private and other religious organizations differently than secular ones. It is unethical, immoral, and unconstitutional.

This continues to occur, even months into the pandemic, and even as schools are attempting to reopen. The state of California has a COVID-19 monitoring list for schools, in an effort to keep track of where the virus is spreading and what areas and school districts are most impacted. The state allows schools to open in counties that have been off the list for two weeks.

Santa Cruz County’s COVID-19 case rates have continued to decline, but the county has threatened to refuse to allow schools to open next week, even private schools. As much as a monitoring list makes sense, it should be the right of private schools, which are not funded by the state or property taxes, to reopen regardless of where they are on the list.

Still, California presumes to control every institution. St. Abraham’s Classical Christian Academy is one of those schools that would like to reopen. With the help of First Liberty Institute, St. Abraham’s has petitioned Santa Cruz County health officials to allow it to reopen.

The additional layer of irony here, some would say even hypocrisy, is that Santa Cruz County does allow schools to open as child care centers, allowing upward of 12 students so long as there is no actual, formal education component involved. California has approved gatherings of up to 14 children and two adults but fails to allow most schools, particularly private schools, to reopen. Not only is this blatantly hypocritical, but it’s just nonsensical.

Attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court Aug. 17 against California Gov. Gavin Newsom on behalf of multiple private, religious schools of different faiths. As they argued in one court filing, “In-person instruction in a religious setting is essential to the promulgation and practice of their religion” and Newsom has, “by executive fiat, prohibited in-person instruction at nearly all religious schools in California.”

The suit, too, points out the irony and inconsistencies: “At the same time, however, Defendants have allowed in-person instruction to continue — and, indeed, to swell — at tens of thousands of tutoring and enrichment centers, education and athletic camps, childcare facilities, and other extra-curricular activity providers. In some cases, this in-person instruction involves the very same students and the very same school buildings that have been closed to formal school instruction.” The arbitrary nature of these decisions is enough to make one consider the possibility that they are purposeful and made out of religious bigotry.

California has been the epicenter of controversy over reopening schools, churches, and businesses, but other states, such as Oregon and Maryland, are experiencing the same issues due to elected officials’ penchant for authoritarianism. The Oregonian reported that, on Aug. 20, a federal judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order to allow several private Christian schools to reopen. Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 executive order currently bans faith-based gatherings of more than 25 people. Like California’s guidelines, these, too, seem arbitrary and unconstitutional.

In Maryland, in-person schooling has also been challenged. With significant outcry (and kudos to the Washington Examiner’s own Tim Carney for reporting on this), a Montgomery County restriction on private school reopenings has been rescinded.

For many families that abhor virtual learning and can’t afford private schools, “pods” or “micro-schools” could have been a welcome option in the absence of in-person school. However, the state banned parents from hiring a nonrelative to facilitate school over 20 hours a week without a license, which often can take several months to acquire. To top it off, officials imposed a hefty fine of up to $5,000 to desperate parents who violate this arbitrary regulation.

COVID-19 caught parents, educators, children, and government officials off guard, but that’s no excuse for arbitrary restrictions that lack consistency and continuity across secular and private institutions. Whatever their intents and purposes, they appear to target people of faith and desperate parents.

Fuente de la Información: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/restrictions-on-private-school-reopenings-thwart-desperate-parents