Educational necessities

Parents can’t ‘micromanage’ school policies

Arkansans have every reason to be happy that their state is, at the moment, in a fairly comfortable spot as far as covid-19 goes. For weeks, cases have been on the decline and, although there’s been a slight increase in active cases in the last several days, it looks unlikely the easily spread disease will consume events this spring as it has over much of the last two years.

Consider Saturday’s Garth Brooks concert at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. What a crowd, and hardly a mask in sight. People packed the stadium in low places, high places and everywhere in between. And they were likely more frustrated by the post-concert traffic management — is that what it’s called? — than by any covid limitations.

Then again, it might be healthy to focus on gratitude that Arkansans and neighbors from surrounding states could have a stadium concert experience without the threat that every other person was contagious.

Covid does still linger, and none of us really know what to expect for the future. Will next winter bring an intensified threat again? Will people’s decision to decline vaccines create another spike in cases when we’re all less likely to be outdoors?

We do know this, thanks to the Arkansas Supreme Court: School districts have broad authority to determine their policies involving public health within the school environment.

A few days ago, the state’s high court tossed a local circuit judge’s ruling that barred the Bentonville School District from enforcing a mask mandate. Three parents sued, asserting they “have the constitutional right to refuse to place face coverings on their well children.” The Supreme Court noted previous litigation had made it clear parents have a liberty interest in shaping their child’s education, but also that government has a “wide range of power for limiting parental freedom and authority in things affecting the child’s welfare.” It is clear, Special Justice Howard Brill wrote in an opinion concurring with the majority, that parents “simply do not have a constitutional right to control each and every aspect of their child’s education.”

Parents have a right to be informed and to be heard on school matters, but that’s fundamentally different from a right to make the decision themselves or a right to selectively abide by some decisions, he wrote. “Parents do not have a constitutional right to micromanage the operation of the schools,” Brill said. “If parents are dissatisfied with the school board decisions, they have a remedy. It is the ballot box.”

This is, really, the only way public schools can operate. With thousands of kids from thousands of families, public education simply cannot be customized to the whim of every child or parent, and educators shouldn’t be forced into trying to make everyone happy when public health decisions are necessary.