The Christian Educator Behind Teachers’ Fight for Free Speech at the Supreme Court
An “adversarial attitude” toward people of faith permeates the public education system and should be confronted by teachers and parents who disagree, the head of an organization for Christian educators said in an interview with The Daily Signal.
Finn Laursen, executive director of the Christian Educators Association International, said that attitude toward religion first took hold in the 1960s, then grew and festered.
It’s a main reason his nonprofit outfit joined with 10 California public school teachers to challenge a state law requiring them to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
“There has been a growing frustration among people of faith,” Laursen told The Daily Signal, adding: “The union leadership is so far left now that it sees anything that is godly as the enemy.”
The U.S. Supreme Court heard about 80 minutes of oral arguments Monday in the case known as Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Rebecca Friedrichs, the lead plaintiff in the case, is a member of Christian Educators Association International.
Attorneys for the group and the individual teachers argued that California’s “agency shop” law violates the plaintiffs’ free speech rights under the First Amendment. The law, they told the high court, coerced the teachers into helping pay …read more