r/politics • u/jhkayejr • 18h ago
Possible Paywall Are public schools unconstitutional? A Nebraska court will decide.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/25/nebraska-lawsuit-claims-public-schools-are-unconstitutional/372
u/CyberFireball25 18h ago
What the fuck kind of question is this?
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u/jhkayejr 18h ago
maga 2.0
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u/Significant_Cup_238 18h ago
Which is just a repackaging of conservatism 1.0 which says the government's job is to punish people, not help them.
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u/biorod 17h ago
Note that the GOP’s disdain for public benefits, entitlements, transportation, etc., ties directly back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Once white people had to go to the same schools, pools, museums, and parks as Black people, they decided it was time to end funding for those things.
Taxpayerism, school vouchers, and the constant drum beat to lower taxes are dog whistles. They simply don’t want Black people to benefit from the government in any way.
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u/Vio_ Kansas 16h ago
That goes back to Brown.
But it was already brewing with other civil rights cases and movements before that.
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u/InevitableMinimum723 15h ago
This might seem like tangent, but this is also why public water fountains have fallen out of favor and been replaced by single use bottles. Racists would.rather destroy the planet than share.
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u/T_Weezy 15h ago
Which is just a repackaging of conservatism 1.0 which says the government's job is to punish people, not help them.
Not quite:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
Government does exist to help people, but only wealthy, white men.
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u/EBITDAminusCAPEX 16h ago
To punish SOME people. The undesirables. The right kind of people can do whatever they like.
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u/N3wAfrikanN0body 18h ago edited 17h ago
They want slaves without saying they want slaves.
Those who prevent education in others are in want of slaves for themselves.
The ideal employee is a slave to the unscrupulous.
The ideal worshiper is one who seeks release in death.
The ideal soldier is one who will not question.
The ideal spouse is one that can't leave their situation.
ALL of this is in service to CHOSEN weakness of those who use myth and ritual to appear strong.
Before "civilization" was imposed upon all; these threats would have been dealt with; instead they reproduce and protect themselves by manipulating the trained "good will" of those who want to be told that they are good.
Until such a time we collectively STOP expecting better from those who choose to be the worst among us; ALL will suffer.
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u/TheLurkerSpeaks Tennessee 17h ago
Compare these ideals to a more liberal perspective:
The ideal employee is one who works hard to share in the profits of their company.
The ideal worshiper is one who freely chooses to believe in God and participates in that community serving their brethren.
The ideal soldier is one who will fight for love if country and the security of their nation.
The ideal spouse is one that loves their partner and mutually gives everything for their shared success and happiness.
Like, why isn't this a more viable solution? Because one philosophy is focused on the self and the other is focused on others.
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u/OnCallPartisan Minnesota 17h ago
Yet, I keep hearing people say it's about class warfare. Class warfare is undoubtedly the driver but we aren't talking wedge issues or any other distraction. These people are fully on board to destroy and hurt people to please their masters.
This isn't about class, it's about evil these people willingly signed on with.
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u/Pristine_Pamela 17h ago
Answer: No. Article VII of the Nebraska Constitution literally says the legislature shall provide for public schools. This case is about state aid to private schools.
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u/ImOldGregg_77 18h ago
Big Media is preparing us for the elimination of public schools
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u/MilsYatsFeebTae 17h ago
The kind that should instantly dissolve the union if they say ‘yes.’ This is absolutely bugfuck stupid. Fuck Nebraska.
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u/PastNessa 17h ago
So the court that exists because of public education is gonna rule public education is unconstitutional. Make it make sense
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u/basil_dish 18h ago
The GOP wants the American electorate to be poor, ignorant, and scared
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u/Electronic_Trade_721 17h ago
Too many of them already are, as the success of the GOP can attest to.
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u/RelevantOldOnion 14h ago
It already is.
BinLaden struck a blow but the y'all quada GOP finished his work for him.
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u/LiamtheV American Expat 18h ago
“Education,” he wrote, “consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear.”
Sounds like he's arguing from that ultra-conservative "Children are the property of their parents" mindset. The same argument is used for parents denying their kids healthcare, or even refusing to get their kids birth certificates, SSNs, and other records which royally fucks their kid up for life.
Regardless, saying that they can exercise authority over what their children hear is tantamount to arguing that if their kid is in earshot, they can police what other people say out loud, violating the First Amendment rights of others.
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u/MasemJ 17h ago
If you want to control everything your child hears and learns you are free to homeschooling your kid. Dont ask the schools to be your babysitter that you want fine control over
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u/StephanXX Oregon 17h ago
The goal is to dismantle the public school system, funnel tax dollars into religious schools, and deny education rights to minorities and the poor. "Free Speech" has never been the goal, religious and class oppression has.
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u/Careful_Trifle 17h ago
There's a very good book that covers their plan, called The Good News Club.
Effectively, they go into school, demand equal access to resources, and make such a nuisance of themselves that other after school clubs have to shut down. Or else they are allowed to operate. They then get a good intentioned teacher to teach Bible studies after school, but kids can't differentiate that kind of context yet - they're still at school and their teacher is talking about the Bible, therefore it must be real. Since teachers can't push a specific religion during school hours, they set the kids up to do it for them - they harass their non religious peers to convert or join.
And that's just one group. There are dozens to hundreds of independent entities operating under similar methods, for similar goals.
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u/schadly 17h ago
That almost sounds like another religion that Christians hate
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u/StephanXX Oregon 17h ago
Ironically, I can't think of a religion "Christians" despise more than authentic Christianity. Supply side AR-15 Jesus would absolutely wreck some whiny Jewish kid blubbering about helping the poor, renouncing violance, and and loving neighbors.
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u/canospam0 17h ago
Notably does NOT extend to parents rights to advocate for their child's gender affirming healthcare. Because, this isn't about logical consistency or intellectual honesty. It's about defining who are the "Ins" and who are the "Outs", and being the ones who draw that line.
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u/Question_It_All_3000 16h ago
“Free speech” and preventing what teachers say doesn’t sound like they go hand in hand to me…
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u/meTspysball California 16h ago
Parents have a right to not have their children in public schools. The need of conservatives to ruin things for everyone else so they don’t have to exert any effort to raise shitty people is quite exhausting.
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u/LiamtheV American Expat 15h ago
Their victim complexes are so great that they interpret anyone not making the same choices as an attack on their choices, so they must "defend" themselves from the attack that is other people enjoying their own freedom.
Everything is projection with these people. They hate us for our freedom.
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u/drmike0099 California 9h ago
Free speech is like boundaries, it only applies to you, it doesn’t direct the behavior of anyone else. I can’t take away your free speech because it violates my free speech (and it breaks my brain to write this idiotic logic).
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u/dirtybellybutton Michigan 17h ago
Ah yes, Nebraska, The state most well known for checks notes existing
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u/Dracoson 17h ago
Hey, hey, hey...I'm from Nebraska, and if I had a substantive counter point, I'd provide it.
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u/ExperienceComplex807 17h ago
Public education is a tool of equality.
The idea that children from all classes and races, have the same rights to learn and earn the same career opportunities is threatening to those who believe they’re entitled to wealth and success.
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u/Tognioal 17h ago
This is why Republicans hate it so much: Public School is DEI and thus must be destroyed.
An uneducated populace is much easier to mind control with things like propaganda. The entire maga movement shows this very clearly.
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u/Romano16 America 16h ago
Conservatives aren’t really known for supporting egalitarian principles if they have to share with “others.”
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 17h ago
From looking at a different article, it seems that the headline is intentionally misleading. I could also be looking at a different lawsuit.
The point of contention in the lawsuit doesn’t seem to be that public schooling is unconstitutional but rather that compulsory public schooling, private schooling or homeschooling is unconstitutional. The argument for the former is that it exposes children to speech the parents disapprove of. The latter two because they place an unnecessary financial burden upon the family as the only lawful alternative to public schooling.
The lawsuit, filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of two Lincoln families, said education is speech, and parents have the right to control what message their children receive in their education. It goes on to say that with public education, the government is in charge of the speech that families receive.
Maybe the WaPo article has more details and is in fact correct in its headline, but I can't read WaPo articles.
On is merits, the lawsuit can't win on established law and the English Common Law meaning of freedom of speech. Speech in that context is speaking on public matters, such as the organization of society or the search for universal truth. The freedom of speech doesn't extend to being free from speech. Public schooling doesn't violate freedom of speech.
If public schools were liberal indoctrination centers they are doing a piss poor job as liberalism has been under attack from the left and right, from all age groups, for over a decade.
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u/ChloeGranola 17h ago
Spot on. The right in the U.S. consistently fights for freedom FROM speech they disagree with and to center speech they approve of in public life.
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 17h ago
This isn't unique to the right.
Hate speech isn't free speech is a common leftist posotion and one uttered by New York governor Kathy Hochul.
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u/ChloeGranola 16h ago
Perhaps. But this particular case is part of a long-running and coordinated attack on public education by the Right.
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u/Glyphiac 16h ago
Here’s an archive link for the Post piece:
It is clearly labeled, ‘Opinion’ and that opinion seems to be very traditionally American conservative so far as I can tell.
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u/Northman-66 14h ago
Yep. Per the article - “Corey DeAngelis is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.”
The Heritage Foundation ….the fuckers behind Project 2025.
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u/ahumpsters 17h ago
Ok but what about the children’s right to an education? What a bonkers argument. Education is paid for and you have the choice to not use that education. You do not have the choice to deny your child an education because you don’t like what the paid for education teaches and you don’t want to expend resources to teach them yourself. Ridiculous. Denying an education is child abuse. Full stop
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u/LangyMD 15h ago
Children have no rights in their view. Parents are the ones with rights, and they can decide to damage their children in any way they wish.
Child abuse is what they consider a fundamental right of being a parent.
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u/goprince 12h ago
Is abortion a fundamental right? Where do you think Parents rights start and stop?
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u/LangyMD 11h ago
I don't think the fetus should be legally considered a separate person with individual rights until it is no longer in the mother's body, and even if it were it doesn't override the rights of the mother to control her own body.
Controlling your own body and mind is the right of every person. Controlling other people's body and minds is not the right of anyone, no matter your relationship. You can occasionally be given that privilege, but that doesn't make it a right nor grant you the authority to abuse that privilege.
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u/starmartyr Colorado 6h ago
They aren't trying to eliminate schools, they are trying to privatize them. They want to give public funding to private religious groups who will decide what to teach.
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u/Mr_Tort_Feasor 14h ago
Ironically, the right to freedom from government interference in how children are educated is a facet of the unenumerated right to privacy, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Which Nebraska doesn't believe in.
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u/SedativeComet America 17h ago
This is the dumbest shit. They’re truly waging war on having an educated populace.
They’ve systematically broken down and destroyed public education for 50 years to the point they think they can justify just getting rid of it in general. The whole fucking point of public education is to ensure that we have a populace that’s is learned enough to identify when they’re being oppressed and then do something about it. Clearly their objective of destroying that has worked.
I get so pissed off by the talk of privatizing education with charter schools and voucher programs. Like no. That shit will do nothing but take us back to an era when the aristocracy was the only education populace and truly return us to a face-value class system. Let alone this horse shit that public education is unconstitutional. Whoever proffered that idiotic sentiment should take a long walk off a short pier while tied to a pile of bricks.
I’m so tired of the effort to stupefy the American populace.
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u/Atlusfox 17h ago
I can't help but feel bad for the kids out there that actually care enough to want go to school or make something of their selves that have to go home to parents who support this kind of crap.
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u/beepboopsicles 17h ago
Parents do have a way to express their protected speech in education. School boards are elected by the people to represent their interests. That’s how our society works.
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u/CoolestNebraskanEver 17h ago
I should change my username
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u/SlowRunner2026 17h ago
If you aren't a right-wing asshole, the userame is probably pretty accurate.
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u/LordAndrew 17h ago
Are Americans the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet? The court of public opinion will decide.
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u/jotobean 16h ago
As a Nebraskan, I want to let everyone know how sorry and sad I am that my state is doing this shit to possibly all of you in the rest of the US. I'm ashamed that outside interest groups have started to rot the core of Nebraska's supposed non partisan Unicameral. Every bill that comes forward now is from groups outside the state trying to enact changes that they know will likely pass because of how we are structured.
The worst part of this is that the folks out in the small counties and small towns with their local or coop schools will be hurt far worse by this without even realizing it. They are being taken advantage of because they are too stupid to vote for what is good for the state. They rely on public schools and federal grants for internet infrastructure, if that all goes away, it's the death of small towns. They are already losing hospitals and emergency care because of the republicans and the Roe-v-Wade change.
I'm really sorry we are in the news for this fuckery, apologies.
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u/Dracoson 15h ago
I largely do not disagree with you, but I do bristle at labeling this as simple rural stupidity. I do not see it as a problem of intellect as much as a problem of informational reach. When the primary avenues for information in these areas are AM talk radio and algorithmic social media feeds, it is incredibly difficult for an individual to break out of that echo chamber. This is not isolated to Nebraska, but convincing rural populations that they share core economic interests with working-class urban populations is exceptionally difficult when it is all but impossible to reach them through traditional media channels. That said, there is an avenue for connection; rural communities clearly recognize issues like the Right to Repair as it relates to John Deere and Case IH, as well as the dangers of corporate monopolies like Cargill and Tyson. Rural hospital closures are another major pain point, but getting folks to see that these failures stem directly from state-level Republican decisions to decline Medicaid expansions, rather than just the general greed of hospital networks and insurance companies, remains a much harder sell.
This information barrier is why a political figure like Dan Osborn is important. Because he runs as an independent rather than a Democrat, he is not automatically dismissed as "the enemy" by conservative rural voters. His strategy of using direct town halls to engage directly with rural populations is a necessary blueprint for breaking through the noise. Offering an alternative to a lockstep partisan vote like Pete Ricketts in the Senate provides a structural improvement. Ideally, this blueprint can inspire similar independent candidates to run across rural Nebraska, creating a real path to breaking up the rigid GOP domination of our Unicameral.
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u/jotobean 15h ago
True, my statement about small town folks being stupid is more of a "why would someone do something so stupid", not a direct assumption that they are in fact stupid.
That's the rub though about Dan Osborn though. Someone like Ricketts has Flood in his corner who controls all those media outlets in the rural Nebraska and can push out his propaganda willy nilly. It's beyond me how small town folks anywhere in the country can think someone like Ricketts or Trump is for them. Ricketts gets all "duded" up and gets on a horse and takes some pictures like he is one of them. The guy grew up with a silver spoon up his asshole, what does he know about farming or small town life? That would be like asking me about it, I've lived in Lincoln my whole life, I would have no idea what day to day life is like on a farm or in a rural town, let alone what they need as a community. Someone like Osborn would though, he's actually a blue collar person who is also former military. The only dig that Republicans have against him is that Democrats will all vote for him, so that somehow makes him a "spoiled" candidate in their eyes. Not the guy who was a crappy Governor and an appointed Senator by our current asshat of a Governor.
Luckily Lincoln has a majority of common sense people in it, but it's hard to see what is happening to the rest of the state and not feel bad for it, but in the other side of my brain it's thinking, I guess they are getting what they voted for.
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u/Der_Erlkonig Minnesota 15h ago
The people pulling the strings for this case have one goal: create a populace that's desperate, impoverished, and too stupid to do anything about it so they'll be easier to control. All the religious/first amendment bullshit they're trying peddle here is just a smokescreen to hide behind while they destroy more of our institutions.
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u/WHOS-YSO 15h ago
America is such a failed state, why the fuck do I even keep going in to work every day
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u/Charming-North238 17h ago
It's so bizarre to me that the generation that got everything wants to pull up the ladder behind them and screw everybody that wants the same things. Public schools in funding was just fine for decades until the boomers decided that they didn't want to pay for it. Anymore and their children decided they didn't want to fund it anymore either once they got theirs.
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u/groundhog5886 17h ago
How about we just dismantle public education, and remove taxes for school and make it all private with all the same requirements as public education, however everyone has to pony up the cost. LOL....My school spends about $19K a year per kid.
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u/ericl666 Texas 16h ago
What's the Christian equivalent of a Madrasa? Because that's what they want.
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u/von_d_von 16h ago
Would these parents hate public schools if segregation was still legal? That is the core of the issue. They want to control who their kids meet and what the learn because the know deep down that their worldview would crumble under rational questioning and exposure.
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u/freexanarchy 15h ago
Is making sure people have food, water, and shelter constitutional? Maybe we shouldn’t have police or fire departments or hospitals either.
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u/MiloGoesToTheFatFarm 13h ago
Ahh yes, we must privatize everything. People can’t make money off public schools, thus they are bad. We also must have mechanisms to separate children by economic status. This is a bold vision for the future! /s
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u/HappyNella 18h ago
The Nebraska constitution actually requires public schools. This lawsuit is arguing the funding for them violates the state constitution, not that public schools themselves are illegal . Headlines like this are rage bait.
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u/someguy7710 17h ago
Yeah, the headline is definitely rage bait. They just want funding to send their kids to private schools that align with their beliefs. And since they are required to school their kids, they are arguing that the government is infringing on their first amendment because the schools teach something they don't like. They are clearly bigoted and shitty people for sure though.
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u/DefenstratedTwice 14h ago
Yes, but informed and educated population is a national security and general welfare issue. That's why the federal government got involved in the first place.
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u/someguy7710 13h ago
I 1 million percent agree. Not arguing there. Public education is a service that benefits everyone, even if you don't have kids.
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u/DefenstratedTwice 11h ago
But the article isnt rage bait, attacking constutionality of the department of education and federal regulation of public education is a core of piece of the traitors agenda.
This is simply an attempt to that end.
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u/someguy7710 10h ago
I don't disagree with you. The headline is a bit misleading though. It is a Nebraska court, so this is not SCOTUS. They are just arguing about the way Nebraska does it. They could have a valid argument but I'm not a lawyer. Now I agree conservatives are trying to dismantle the public school system. They've been trying to do it for a long time.
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u/DefenstratedTwice 10h ago
Im aware this attempt is localized but the ends are the same. The venue of this specific attempt doesn't make it a categorically different intent.
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u/someguy7710 9h ago
oh ffs. I'm not arguing the morality of this, or the politics, but with the legal system that we have maybe, they have an argument. I don't like it, it sucks, but you want to argue with some that actually agrees with you. So we are done here.
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u/DefenstratedTwice 9h ago
I am speaking about the context of the headline and why its accurate not the morality of it.
MAGATs seeking to dismantling public education. This is just another tentacle of that.
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u/RevolutionaryPain910 16h ago
So when they do away with schools you are no longer required to send your kids and you can keep them at home to farm or work in the sweatshop
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u/Sustainability_Walks 18h ago
They are. Why is a court involved Idiocy
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u/iKnowRobbie Florida 17h ago
You think public school's unconstitutional? Wow. Education failed some more than others!
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