Where are the Kids? Mahmoud v. Taylor and the Constitutional Rewriting of Public Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Who Governs Education? Power, Law, and Institutional Change Across Systems

Abstract

In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court recognized a new constitutional right for parents to opt their children out of curriculum they believe undermines their religious beliefs. Framing the case as an affirmation of religious liberty, the Court erased children as constitutional subjects and reimagined education as a zero-sum conflict between parents and the state. This paper offers a holistic analysis of the opinion, showing how the Court distorts precedent and ignores legal and philosophical traditions that recognize education as a civic institution and children as rights-holders. By tracing what the opinion omits and distorts, the paper calls for unforgetting children's interests and reimagining educational governance rooted in developmental, pluralistic, and democratic principles.

Author

• Christopher D. Thomas, University of Florida