To the editor:

God allows people to make choices. People should be able to choose what kind of school they want to attend.

When parents choose a private school, they sign up for more than academics; they want their kids’ education to be paired with personal preferences such as religion, vocation, or subject expertise. The job of the public school is to teach academics, not morals to our kids. When parents send their kids to a public school, they expect them to learn math, reading, writing and good thinking skills through science and history. If parents want their children to be taught a specific moral, such as commendation of homosexual or transgender behavior, then they should create a school where those morals are taught. There are no Bible classes in public school, and there shouldn’t be classes on diversity, equity, and inclusion either. Public schools must stick to their job of teaching basic academics.

Bullying of any kind must not be tolerated. No child should be unkind to any other child no matter what that child chooses regarding a multitude of identities, including religion, sexual identity, or political orientation. If kids don’t want negative feedback to their choices, they shouldn’t broadcast what their choices are. If the school’s focus is on academics, there will be less inclination to spend precious time on other matters.

God lets us choose who and what we want to be, and we need to let people make those choices too. No one has the right or responsibility to force kids to be something other than what they and their parents want them to be. When parents want personal non-academic issues to be significant in their child’s education, then they should gather like-minded parents and start their own schools where those issues are the focus. That’s what the Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and homeschoolers have done.

Gigi Rysdahl

New Ulm