In Parental Authority and Religious Freedom, William C. Duncan, Sutherland Institute Constitutional Law & Religious Freedom Fellow, argues that families and religious communities play a vital role in teaching children the values, habits, and responsibilities they need to become good citizens.

States also play a critical role in protecting parents’ ability to influence their children. State laws provide a structure for the exercise of these rights, particularly in school.

Legal protection of religious freedom and parental rights creates the necessary autonomy for faith and family to transmit the habits necessary for responsible citizenship to new generations of Americans.

Parents have meaningful legal rights to direct, review, and customize their child’s education through options such as curriculum review, accommodations, open enrollment, homeschooling, and more.

They discuss the future of the conservative movement, the importance of principled and evidence-based policymaking, and why states may be better positioned than Washington, D.C., to tackle some of America’s biggest challenges by bringing policymaking closer to the people it affects.