Week in Review: Does the Government Own Your Children?

They’re your children, not the government’s.

But just how far can the government go in standing between a parent and their child? New Jersey’s liberal leaders filed suit to keep parents in the dark about what’s going on in public schools, then went on national TV to claim that keeping secrets from moms and dads is the “American way.” Now the Goldwater Institute is standing up for the constitutional rights of a mom who wants to fight back.

The Marlboro Township Board of Education recently adopted a policy that keeps parents informed about what’s happening to their children, only for the state to sue the district for “discrimination.” So this week on behalf of concerned mom Angela Tycenski, Goldwater told the court that the state’s lawsuit is blatantly illegal.

As Goldwater Staff Attorney Adam Shelton said on the Fox Business program Varney & Co., “Parents have a fundamental, constitutional right to control and direct the education, upbringing, and healthcare decisions of their children.”

Across the country, the government is trying to usurp parents’ role. But we won’t let the government win: in New Jersey and around the nation, Goldwater will keep defending parents’ rights and empowering moms and dads to make informed decisions about what’s best for their children.

Read more here. 

Biden Admin Schemes to Keep Racism Around 

The Supreme Court may have struck down racially discriminatory affirmative action policies in college admissions, but the Biden administration’s Education Department is giving universities a how-to guide on skirting the law and keeping racism around.

Here’s what they’re telling colleges to do:

• Substitute words like “underserved” and “disadvantaged” for “race”;
• Lower their standards by reconsidering prerequisite courses and application deadlines;
• Expand the existing apparatus of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) offices, which promote race-based discrimination.

The new guidance underscores the importance of the Goldwater Institute’s nation-leading work to defeat radical DEI in higher education. Already in 2023, Goldwater showed the country how to win, enacting a powerful new reform in Texas that completely defunds the bloated bureaucracy of DEI offices in public higher education. And in states like Arizona and Florida, Goldwater dismantled public universities’ unconstitutional practice of requiring faculty job applicants to submit “diversity statements.”

It’s time for Washington to get on board and follow the law.

“Washington has revealed that identity politics matters more to the administration than effort and hard work,” Goldwater Senior Fellow Jonathan Butcher writes at In Defense of Liberty. “Surely the next generation of leaders does not need an object lesson from federal bureaucrats in how to be devious.”

Read the rest at In Defense of Liberty. 

WSJ: Goldwater Dismantles DEI in the Desert

The Goldwater Institute is “the plucky think tank that started this virtuous kerfuffle,” Wall Street Journal editor James Freeman declares as he heaps praise on Goldwater for defeating DEI in Arizona.

Last week, Goldwater revealed that Arizona’s public universities would no longer require faculty job applicants to pledge allegiance to the progressive tenets of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” by providing mandatory “diversity“ statements. “Not that college administrators were all eager to endorse common sense and freedom of belief, but after a bombshell report from the Goldwater Institute detailing the widespread use of such ideological tests, the state’s Board of Regents felt compelled to reject them,” the Wall Street Journal adds.

Goldwater will keep fighting DEI—and we’ll keep winning, too.

Read more in the Wall Street Journal.

Debunked

Brand-new statistics just blew a hole in one of the left’s favorite anti-school choice talking points.

Arizona’s public schools are set to break the record for spending this year, nearing a whopping $15,000 per pupil, as they also receive $800 million more in state and local taxpayer funding compared to last year. That funding surge, which comes as demand for Arizona’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program continues to grow, should be a shock to naysayers who claimed that universal ESAs—which only cost $7,000 per child—would decimate funding for public schools.

Turns out, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

And it’s all happening as Goldwater’s work to create and expand ESAs is bearing fruit: not only are tens of thousands of Arizona families taking advantage of expanded education options, but Goldwater has taken this blueprint nationwide, enacting universal school choice in four more states just this year alone.

As Goldwater Director of Education Policy Matt Beienburg writes at In Defense of Liberty: “Our goal should not be to maximize the cost of public education, but rather to provide the greatest opportunity for academic enrichment to our students, regardless of the schooling environment chosen to deliver it.”

Read more here.