Citizens Project Reaches Out to Local Schools Regarding Holidays, Colorado HB 1254
16th November, 2011
Last week, Citizens Project distributed copies of the Anti-Defamation League’s December Dilemma to nearly 200 local schools, urging educators to respect the First Amendment rights of every student and ensure that no child feels left out of or disrespected by holiday celebrations. The organization also included information prepared by the Safe @ School Coalition about recently-passed HB 1254, an anti-bullying measure to keep young people safe at school.
The mailing is intended to raise awareness around the laws and constitutional protections afforded to all students, during the holiday season and beyond. The accompanying packet of information included best practice recommendations for inclusive holiday celebrations, a broad overview of HB 1254, frequently asked questions about the bill, and info about Citizens Project’s upcoming Citizens’ Religious Freedom Institute.
“We believe that students perform best in safe and inclusive academic environments,” said Kristy Milligan, executive director of Citizens Project. “By providing these resources to local teachers and administrators, we hope to support them in their efforts to comply with the law and help all their students achieve academic excellence.”
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Colorado 2011 Election Recap
2nd November, 2011
More than 116,775 voters in El Paso County, Colorado turned out in the 2011 coordinated election on November 1, 2011, and the votes are in! Below, you’ll find the results for some of the top races in the region.
Colorado Springs School District 11 School Board:
Bob Null
Janet Tanner
Elaine Naleski
Nora Brown
Academy School District 20 School Board:
Glenn Strebe
Tracey Johnson
Falcon School District 49:
Charles Iron
Marie LaVere-Wright
Joan Johnson *2-year term
Proposition 103: This measure, which would have raised taxes to fund public education, failed by 63.9% statewide.
Measure 2B – Memorial Health System: This measure, which revokes Colorado Springs City Council’s ability to levy a tax in the event of a deficit at Memorial Health System, passed with 60.52% of the vote.
Check other election results at the El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s website.
No matter how your issues and candidates fared, thank you for taking the time to get educated and make your voice heard at the ballot box, and thank you for supporting Citizens Project’s Election Education Forum, our Voter Guide, and our GOTV work. We’ll see you before the next election!
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Citizens’ Religious Freedom Institute
31st October, 2011
Citizens Project is proud to present the third annual Citizens’ Religious Freedom Institute, a one day seminar on how the First Amendment to the US Constitution protects religious freedom in public schools. For teachers, students, parents, administrators, staff, school board members, and open to the public.
Saturday March 10, 2012
Colorado College, Slocum Commons
Participants will learn:
- How the law defines religious freedom in the public school setting,
- Best practices for respecting all students’ religious freedom, and
- How to be an advocate for religious freedom in your school.
In-service credit for teachers and graduate credit is available. Lunch, textbook and supplemental materials are provided to all participants.
To receive information about the Citizens’ Religious Freedom Institute, join our email list for Freedom Watch Online, email Kristy Milligan, or call us at (719) 520-9899.
Click here to download the flier
Click here for the REGISTRATION FORM.
Click here to download the 2011 Citizens Religious Freedom Toolkit.
Additional resource: US Department of Education guidelines
Additional resource: US Department of Education letter and primer
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Freedom Watch Voter Guide Available NOW!
20th October, 2011
Your vote is your voice.
Voting is more than a right; it’s a responsibility. When you make educated choices at the ballot box, you’re investing in your community and holding your leaders accountable.
That’s why, for the last 19 years, Citizens Project has produced nonpartisan publications and events for all local elections: to arm you with the information you need to make educated decisions that shape your community.
Thanks to the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition, collaborators, volunteers, donors, and readers like you, Citizens Project is proud to present our 2011 Freedom Watch Voter Guide for school board elections and city and state ballot measures. We hope you’ll use it to inform your decisions in the 2011 general election.
And if you’re still not sure, or if you haven’t received your ballot, check out our election page for all the information you need to make your voice heard.
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Candidates and Issue Advocates Share Positions at October 20 Election Forum
19th October, 2011
Nearly 100 community members came out on October 18 to Stargazers Theater to hear from school board hopefuls and issue advocates for the November general election.
The event, which was presented by Citizens Project, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition, and Inside/Out Youth Services, was moderated by Joe Cole from Fox21 and featured media panelists Andrea Chalfin of KRCC and Ralph Routon of the Independent. Attendees heard from city-wide school board candidates, and Colorado Springs School District 11 Board hopefuls were out in full force. The audience also asked questions of Bob Lally, who presented on the Memorial Health System question, and Victor Mitchell and Mark Neuman-Lee, who discussed statewide ballot measure Proposition 103.
The forum format included traditional Q&A from media and audience members, and also encouraged candidates and advocates to think outside the box by handing them props and asking them to explain how they related to their campaign.
Citizens Project offers special thanks to the volunteers who made the event possible: Mel, Victoria, Kelly, Mark and Rob.
We thank our co-sponsors: 9to5, National Association of Working Women, ACLU, Artemis Women, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, League of Women Voters – Pikes Peak Region, NAACP Colorado Springs Branch, One Colorado, and Women’s Resource Agency
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Make a difference! Get Out The Vote!
18th September, 2011
GOTV Phone banking, food, and fun!!
Our Postcard writing night was a great success thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers! Join Citizens Project at our next GOTV event!
Make sure your neighbors get involved in the upcoming general election, and make your voice heard!
Thursday, October 13 and 20, 2011, 5-9pm
Location TBD
Volunteers asked to stay for at least 2 hour shifts and are welcome to stay for the entire night. We need a minimum of ten volunteers to make it happen!
There will be games, music, refreshments, and fun throughout the night, also prizes for the person who brings the most friends.
RSVP to kristy@citizensproject.org
To learn more about the upcoming election, visit our election page here.
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School Vouchers, Parental Rights Movements Face Conflicting Interests
14th September, 2011
By David Trillo, guest writer
To many ardent church-state separation activists, and I am definitely ardent, opposition to tax-funded school vouchers for religious or parochial schools approaches an article of faith. Separationists argue that tax aid to religious schools is a plain, flagrant violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, and may violate state and federal laws by funding institutions that practice religious or other forms of discrimination.
Voucher supporters tend to view such prohibitions as discriminatory against religion or violations of parental rights.
On August 12, Denver District Court Judge Michael Martinez saw the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program through separationists’ eyes, ruling it unconstitutional. The school district intends to appeal.
These surface issues that typically make the news, however, miss most of the action that raises deeper concern. As is often the case when a political movement that normally tries to limit individual liberty takes sides with a “rights” cause, the explanation for the seemingly conflicting ideals begs an investigation.
School vouchers are often portrayed in the guise of parental rights. The right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children has been the subject of ballot initiatives in several states as well as favorable Supreme Court rulings1, 2 that paved legal precedent for Constitutionally protecting a wide variety of unenumerated rights, including the divisive right to an abortion.
An amendment to the Constitution that reads, in part, “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right1” looks like something that I could vigorously support. An amendment that emphatically locks the government out of our family lives would appear to be a powerfully progressive tool.
Yet many of such an amendment’s strongest supporters come from Religious Right groups that openly express legislative goals such as “protecting marriage,” “strengthening the traditional family,” and “policy issues relevant to families from a foundation firmly established in a biblical worldview3” – words that clearly imply a governmental role in shaping and engineering family life.
If that puzzles you, the mystery will begin to disappear when we explore exactly what sort of tool its Religious Right advocates see in it.
A clue appears in a Focus on the Family web article4 that criticizes the American Library Association while downplaying Banned Books Week. A quick guide5 page to parental rights articles at citizenlink.org links to it as well as to other pages, most of which object to various sexual issues.
One of the “parental rights” that it alleges is the right to “challenge,” i.e., request the removal of library books that a parent finds objectionable. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, echoes this view, implying that public libraries somehow violate parental rights7 when they carry books that some parents find objectionable.
That raises a question. If other parents demand that the library affords their children maximum access to the same kind of information, who wins? Religious Right groups appear to believe that the parents demanding the limitations should win.
In addition, the Focus Citizen Link article4 asserts that parents should use their rights to demand that libraries carry, for example, anti-gay materials to balance out perceived pro-gay books. (That sounds a lot like the old broadcast Fairness Doctrine.) Ironically, the American Civil Liberties Union has recently sued a Missouri school district for censoring gay-supportive Web sites while allowing anti-gay sites13 – a policy supported by many “parental rights” advocates, at least as indicated by comments on accompanying news stories.
Another clue appears in a Parentalrights.org news alert concerning California Senate Bill 48, which involves teaching about the contributions of gay and lesbian Americans. While the organization’s demand for parental opt-out rights appears sincere, it notes that, in the absence of an opt-out right, “there is no lesser recourse available than to change the entire curriculum for all.6”
Citizen Link is more audacious, asserting that “same-sex marriage laws have directly undermined parental rights” by encouraging class discussion of “controversial sexual topics.10” (That’s quite an about-face from Religious Right groups’ stances on teaching Intelligent Design alongside evolution, advocated on the grounds that schools should “teach the controversy.”) Apparently, even other citizens’ marriage choices must step aside to prevent sparking classroom discussions that some parents would rather avoid.
There are, undoubtedly, millions of well-meaning Christian parents who sincerely want nothing more than a right to excuse their children from certain curriculum content. But as evidenced above, some Religious Right groups view parental rights as a tool to deprive everyone’s children access to information that socially conservative parents find objectionable. They envision a world in which the rights of “conservative” parents trump intellectual freedom, and can demand removal of “objectionable” library materials despite the wishes and rights of other parents who want no such limitation8.
But that is a recurring pattern in far right vernacular, where the words “rights” and “freedom” translate more accurately into “power.”
As I already mentioned, a Constitutional parental rights amendment feels very appealing to me. But when you realize that Religious Right groups generally consider Antonin Scalia to be a model Supreme Court judge, and it was that same Antonin Scalia who opined that parents have no court-enforceable right to direct their children’s upbringing12 (Troxel v. Granville, 2000)11, I have some doubts whether “conservative” politicians would return me the favor if my parental stances clashed with their government policies.
What raises my suspicions is the fact that most high-profile parental rights advocates appear to assume that their primary beneficiaries are always conservative religious parents.
Parentalrights.org vigorously opposes the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child; one of their specific objections reads, “Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.9”
It is odd that granting this right to a child would be objectionable; what if the child in question wanted to become a Christian, yet had stridently anti-religious parents? Or in this time of fear of “Sharia Law,” what if a child of Muslims wanted to become a Christian? Would they still side with the parents’ rights? Or would the child’s religious freedom suddenly be worth defending? The objection makes sense, however, if it is assumed that the parents who would enjoy these rights are always conservative Christian parents.
It’s also odd that Religious Right groups appear to support near-absolute parental rights, in light of their oft-stated desire to protect children and safeguard their innocence – almost a children’s-rights view in itself. Again, it all makes perfect sense if it is assumed that only religious or social conservatives are morally qualified to be trusted with parental rights and act in the best interest of children.
This brings me back to school vouchers. It’s curious, again, that Religious Right groups that support strong parental rights would also support government vouchers for private or religious schools, since many of these schools require, as a condition of admission, that parents surrender most or all of their rights while children are in the school’s custody. Isn’t that exactly what they were fighting against?
The school voucher and parental rights arguments put forth today are undeveloped, founded in inconsistent and contradictory premises, and are therefore difficult to put together into a coherent ideological or political model. Implementing either vouchers or parental rights amendments now would certainly have many consequences that their proponents never intended – or might even deeply regret.
To the eyes of a fair and impartial federal judge, a Parental Rights Amendment would not deliver what many of its backers think it would. Moreover, parental rights are not, in themselves, adversarial in nature to children’s rights. In the hands of a judge appointed because of his or her sympathy to Religious Right causes, however, the new amendment could likely be applied pursuant to its evident intent which – as often seems to happen – appears to be quite opposite what its enticing words say.
The puzzle pieces, as they seem to fit, tell me that “Parental rights” are apparently intended to mean “special powers for socially conservative parents.” And school vouchers are merely a temporary shelter from public schools that are considered hostile to faith. If unrestricted school vouchers for religious schools became freely available, I doubt that the campaigns to stock public school boards with “conservatives” would stop. Efforts to elect Religious Right majorities to school boards would continue unabated.
On the other hand, if you’re one of the millions who merely want the government to butt out of your parenting, then you might in fact have more in common with me: I share that goal of limiting the government’s involvement in our personal living choices as well.
References:
- Parentalrights.org, The Annotated [Parental Rights] Amendment, http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={E7900CE9-7AE0-47B3-81F6-CC16B7CAA8A0}
- Parentalrights.org, Parental Rights Doctrine, http://parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={3051ABFF-B614-46E4-A2FB-0561A425335A}
- About Us, Citizen Link, a Focus on the Family affiliate, citizenlink.org, http://www.citizenlink.com/about-us/
- Citizen Link, “The Truth About Banned Books Week,” Citizen Link, a Focus on the Family affiliate, citizenlink.org, http://www.citizenlink.com/2010/09/28/the-truth-about-banned-books-week/
- Citizen Link, “Quick Guide: Articles on Parental Rights in Schools,” Citizen Link, a Focus on the Family affiliate, citizenlink.org, http://www.citizenlink.com/2011/04/28/quick-guide-articles-on-parental-rights-in-schools/
- Parentalrights.org, “Whatever Schools Teach, Parents Have No Rights,” http://parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={9B1459E6-8710-4884-B9E7-C4D53CE8278B}
- Dr. Albert Mohler, “Banned Book Week – Parenting at the Mercy of the Local Librarian,” albertmohler.com, http://www.albertmohler.com/2009/10/01/banned-book-week-%E2%80%93-parenting-at-the-mercy-of-the-local-librarian/
- Alysse ElHage, “The ‘Right’ to Read: Should Intellectual Freedom Trump Parental Rights in Libraries?,” North Carolina Family Policy Council, http://www.ncfpc.org/FNC/0811SF.html
- Parentalrights.org, “20 Things You Need to Know about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” http://www.parentalrights.org/vertical/Sites/%7BC49108C5-0630-467E-9B9B-B1FA31A72320%7D/uploads/%7BD9F69482-C92B-4BB2-A291-06CBA2B9CF69%7D.PDF
- Candi Cushman, “Parental-Rights Backlash Is Brewing,” Citizen Link, http://www.citizenlink.com/2010/04/26/parental-rights-backlash-is-brewing/
- Troxel v. Granville (2000), Supreme Court of the United States, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-138.ZS.html
- Antonin Scalia, Troxel v. Granville (2000), Supreme Court of the United States, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-138.ZD1.html
- Suzanne Ito, “ACLU Sues Missouri School District for Illegally Censoring LGBT Websites,” aclu.org, http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-lgbt-rights/aclu-sues-missouri-school-district-illegally-censoring-lgbt-websites
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Citizens Project responds to graduation ceremonies at churches
15th May, 2011
Citizens Project recognizes that there are many factors at play for schools and districts when selecting graduation ceremony sites. However, just last year, a federal district court in Connecticut determined that holding graduation ceremonies in religious environments violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and there is significant legal precedent to substantiate this finding. (See Does v. Enfield Public Schools; Musgrove v. Brevard County School Board; Lemke v. Black; Spacco v. Bridgewater School Department.)
As your local organization devoted to religious freedom, we believe that every student has a right to a quality, religiously neutral public education spanning from kindergarten to graduation. Citizens Project supports our local schools through our education programs, including our annual Citizens’ Religious Freedom Institute and targeted outreach, such as our December Dilemma mailing about best practices to protect students’ religious freedom around the holidays. These programs help schools, teachers, and administrators create inclusive academic environments and save taxpayer money by decreasing exposure to unnecessary litigation.
Contact us with questions or to report problems with your school’s graduation
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Texas Board of Education re-writes history
19th March, 2010
Educators, historians, journalists and commentators all over the country are decrying the decision by the Texas Board of Education to approve highly politicized revisions to public school curriculum.
Thanks to the Texas Freedom Network for this round-up:
A San Francisco Chronicle columnist sharply criticizes the State Board of Education’s rewriting of Texas social studies standards.
Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state’s borders.
The San Antonio Express-News says the “latest example of SBOE incompetence springs from the same source as other outrages: The inability of social conservatives on the state board to distinguish between ideology and education.”
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, director of the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project at the University of Texas School of Journalism, says the Texas State Board of Education apparently wasn’t listening as witnesses came from across the state to urge members to consider the inclusion of more Hispanic Americans in social studies curriculum standards.
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have now, in their characteristic ways, weighed in on the Texas State Board of Education.
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Religious Right Offensive on Public Education in Texas
15th February, 2010
Citizens Project has been following the dangerous extremism on the Texas Board of Education over the last several months. It exploded in the national press yesterday with this cover story in The New York Times Magazine.
The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!”
Citizens Project will keep monitoring local schools to prevent this from happening here. Please let us know if you hear of any inappropriate politicizing we should be aware of.
Thanks to our friends at the Texas Freedom Network for fighting the Texas takeover.
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