The Texas Supreme Court sided with a family accused of not teaching its children anything while waiting to be "raptured," but failed to answer larger constitutional questions about whether home-schooled students must be properly educated.
The 6-3 decision by the all-Republican court on technical grounds means nothing was decided regarding a showdown between religious liberties and educational requirements in America's largest conservative state, though it will live on in lower Texas courts.
Texas doesn't require parents who home-school their children to register with state authorities. While families must meet "basic educational goals" in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and citizenship, they don't have to give standardized testing or otherwise prove student progress is made.
In essence, the legal debate was not about the family's religious convictions, but rather about a relative's complaint that their children were being insufficiently educated (and the reason why they were being insufficiently educated was not relevant from a legal standpoint).
The family said it used a religious curriculum similar to one offered in El Paso's Christian schools, and noted the uncle invented claims of waiting for the rapture because he was embroiled in a dispute over ownership of the since-defunct motorcycle dealership.
The high court found that 14th Amendment claims were not a question for Texas' educational code.
"Whether their constitutional rights were violated remains to be decided, but it is a question the courts — not the commissioner — must decide," Justice John Devine wrote, referring to the state's education commissioner, Mike Morath. [The] ruling wasn't a total win for the McIntyres, however. The Texas Supreme Court also agreed with a lower court in that Mendoza didn't violate federal 14th Amendment protections when he investigated the McIntyres.
Although a copy of the ruling isn't publicly available, news reports indicate that the court didn't intervene to compel the McIntyre children to attend school or subject the family to additional scrutiny. But more to the point, the parents involved expressly did not argue that their belief in an imminent Rapture exempted them from following state homeschooling laws. The parents instead refuted a relative's claim regarding that religious belief, asserting that a complaint had been lodged against them in retaliation for a familial business dispute. Irrespective of the family's religious beliefs, Texas homeschool regulations are among the least restrictive in the country and require little in the way of enforced curriculum or testing.
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