Time to boot government from education? ‘Outnumbered’ panel debates end to public schools

(Video: Fox News)

On Monday, the cohosts of Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered” spoke with author Vivek Ramaswamy about a Supreme Court case involving the firing of high school football coach Joe Kennedy for having the temerity to lead players in a quick prayer after games.

“First, is this just good for the country right now,” Ramaswamy said, “when you have a coach that’s that dedicated to his school, to his players, to his cause, and just wants to express himself and pray on the field? I think it is objectively a good thing.”

“I actually wrote a story over the weekend,” he continued, “about this mental health epidemic amongst teenagers in this country. Why do we think that is? Especially at a point where we’ve actually gotten drug addiction and alcoholism and smoking in teens down to low levels? It’s because young people, teenagers, lack a sense of purpose, lack a sense of identity, lack a cause, and it was telling to me that the players asked him to come join them on the field. They were so hungry for that sense of purpose and meaning that if there’s a good man, a coach, who’s able to give that to them—we shouldn’t penalize him.”

Ramaswamy then offered his prediction on the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in the case.

“There’s a legal question that’s different,” he said, “which is to say that can he force them to do it? No, the answer’s no, but can he do it if the students are voluntarily able to participate? My view: absolutely. And I think that’s what the Supreme Court’s going to say.”

“This is not a case of the government compelling speech—a public sector school teacher forcing a classroom to engage in prayer,” Kayleigh McEnany interjected. “This is someone who is a government employee saying ‘Hey, I want to silently, freely exercise my right to religious speech.'”

That’s when co-host Kennedy spoke up with a provocative suggestion—namely, the abolition of government schools altogether.

“This will be a very important case for religious liberty, but also may be a great time in our country’s history where we rethink whether or not we have public schools. Maybe we should not have the government involved in education at all, so parents and teachers and administrators can make those decisions themselves instead of having the government impose it on them because it is the public school aspect of this that is creating the legal challenge,” she said.

“And what do we do with the people who can’t afford private? Like, what does that look like?” Harris Faulkner inquired. “Because each state allots some money so they would get that money, I would assume. Isn’t that what Florida wanted to do?”

“Yeah,” Kennedy replied, “you could have—we could entirely rethink— OK, I’ll tell you why I say that. It’s because the two most powerful teachers’ unions in the country are opposed to Coach Kennedy. They are using their heft and their influence to make sure that he loses this case.”

“Outnumbered” co-host Emily Compagno agreed and expressed her belief that the Court’s ruling would be in Coach Kennedy’s favor.

“So this is so important that this case is before the Supreme Court,” she said, “and I hold all the faith in the world—no pun intended—that these justices will rule correctly.”

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