Several religious scholars and activists were among the signatories and authors behind a document calling on schools to embrace “unshakable principles” about the importance of Judeo-Christian tradition and parental rights amid a push by the Trump administration for school choice nationwide.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., announced in a statement last week that it had unveiled the “Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education” at the Conservative Vision of Education Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
The new declaration highlights seven pillars the signatories believe should guide policy education in the U.S.: parental choice and responsibility, transparency and accountability, truth and goodness, cultural transmission, character formation, academic excellence and citizenship.
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“Every child should have access to a high-quality, content-rich education that fosters the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful, so that they may achieve their full, God-given potential,” the “Phoenix Declaration” states. “America’s schools must work alongside parents to prepare children for the responsibilities of adulthood, including their familial and civic responsibilities, by cultivating excellence in mind and heart.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said that for “too long, education freedom advocates have been on defense, constantly reacting to the radical Left’s latest ideological assault.”
“It’s time to go on offense,” he stated. “School leaders, educators, school board members, and policymakers need a set of shared, unshakable principles to reclaim education and put students — not leftist activism — first.”
Leaders of several faith-based colleges served on the drafting committee, including Rachel Cambre of the Roman Catholic Church-affiliated Belmont Abbey College and Donald Sweeting of Colorado Christian University.
Signatories included Aaron Baer of the Ohio-based Center for Christian Virtue, Rabbi Mark Gottlieb of the Tikvah Fund, Todd Marrah of the United States Christian Education Network, Emmett McGroarty of Belmont Abbey College, Troy McIntosh of the Ohio Christian Education Network, Shawn Peterson of Catholic Education Partners and Michael Van Hecke of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Waters and Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz are among notable public officeholders who signed the declaration.
Other notable signatories include Christian scholars Ryan Anderson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Professor Robert George of Princeton University.
Identifying parents as “the primary educators of their children,” the declaration maintains, “Parents should have the freedom to choose the learning environments that align with their values and best meet their children’s individual learning needs, with public education funding following the child.”
The document also asserts that “Policies should respect the right and high duty of parents to raise their children and make decisions about their children’s education.”
“Schools have a responsibility to be transparent with parents about what their children are being taught and how their children are performing,” the document adds. “Schools must never have misguided policies that hide information from parents about their children’s mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.”
The “Phoenix Declaration” also calls for students to “learn that there is objective truth and that it is knowable,” stating, “Science courses must be grounded in reality, not ideological fads.”
Another principle the document urged schools to instill in students is that “good and evil exist, and that human beings have the capacity and duty to choose good.”
The document wants schools to teach students “America’s founding principles and roots in the broader Western and Judeo-Christian traditions” and ensure they are “held accountable for their behavior, both to learn that their choices have consequences and to maintain the order necessary for learning to proceed.”
“Our shared civic rituals, such as the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem, should be respected and revived. Students should develop a deep understanding of and respect for our nation’s founding documents and the ideas they contain about ordered liberty, justice, the rule of law, limited government, natural rights, and the equal dignity of all human beings,” the document concluded.
The declaration comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to expand school choice in the U.S. last month.
Insisting that “too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school,” Trump ordered the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue guidance as to how states receiving federal funds from the department “can use them to expand educational choice and support families who choose educational alternatives to governmental entities, including private and faith-based options.”
The “Phoenix Declaration” reflects concerns about public schools teaching students what it calls “radical, anti-American ideologies,” which Trump addressed in another executive order.
In the executive order committed to eliminating “radical indoctrination” from public schools, Trump signaled his intention to withhold federal funds from schools that impose “anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
