After two years of litigation and nearly 2 million taxpayer dollars spent, only 43 families, representing 58 students, opted out of lessons conflicting with their faith, following the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor that restored parents’ right to do so.
In September, Montgomery County Public Schools released data on its new “Refrigerator Curriculum” policy, “a simple, one-page overview of the main themes and texts students will study each marking period — nicknamed the ‘Refrigerator Curriculum’ because it’s designed to be easy to post on the fridge at home.” The number of parents reviewing the Refrigerator Curriculum and participating in opt-outs was surprisingly small. After years of protesting, litigating, advocating, and headline-making, why so few?
One likely reason is that many of those same families are no longer part of MCPS. In the same time span, Montgomery County saw a rise in homeschooling and private school enrollment as families sought alternatives amid this dispute. I can think of at least a dozen families who have since decided to send their children to private school or to homeschool.
According to the Maryland State Department of Education, the number of homeschooled children in Montgomery County increased by 28% from the 2022–23 to the 2023–24 school year, from 2,758 to 3,538 students. From the 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 school year, MCPS enrollment fell by 1,041 students, according to the district’s records. Those who could afford to leave MCPS did, first during the pandemic and again when the district trampled the First Amendment rights of its families.
Another reason for the low participation may lie in the policy itself. Despite its name, the Refrigerator Curriculum offers little of the transparency parents were promised. The fine print on the district’s website links to a view-only Google Doc listing nearly 2,000 supplemental texts teachers might use in classrooms. The burden falls entirely on parents to research titles and authors to determine whether the materials conflict with their beliefs.
Parents describe the process as “labor-intensive,” frustrating, and costly. One learned from the MCPS supervisor for pre-K-12 social studies that the curriculum materials (not just the books used) could only be accessed through an in-person meeting or a Maryland Public Information Act request — a process that can include fees. Transparency continues to come with a cost.
Another utilized AI to comb through the exhaustive list of possible books her children’s teachers could read, spending about a day to narrow it down to about 70 texts to opt out of.
The recent in-person Refrigerator Curriculum review events hosted by the district again left parents desiring more. MCPS scheduled the elementary and secondary reviews on the same date and time in two different locations, forcing parents to choose between them. I was one of five parents to attend the secondary review.
Many texts listed on the Refrigerator Curriculum flyers were absent from the event; however, Rainbow Revolutionaries was present for sixth-grade parents to review. It’s a book not listed on the Refrigerator Curriculum, but one of thousands of supplemental texts from which a sixth-grade teacher can choose. Does the district’s intentional display of this LGBT book signal that it is recommending teachers use it? This opinion writer thinks yes.
One benefit to emerge from the rollout of the Refrigerator Curriculum is that it exposed a deeper problem: the lack of consistency in curriculum quality and accessibility across the district. Parent groups have long warned that MCPS lacks cohesive, high-quality curricula in key areas, such as secondary science and English, AP classes, and magnet programs. The district’s fragmented approach has long frustrated families seeking clarity on what, exactly, their children are learning.
A policy designed to respect religious opt-outs has inadvertently highlighted that inconsistency. Perhaps, in the long run, this battle for religious liberty will serve a broader public good: the implementation of consistent, rigorous, and publicly accessible curricula for all students and families.
At minimum, the new data undermine the district’s rationale for revoking opt-outs: that the number of requests had become “too burdensome.” Fifty-eight requests out of 160,000 students hardly meet that threshold.
A GOOD DAY FOR PLURALISM IN PUBLIC EDUCATION AT THE SUPREME COURT
If MCPS truly wants to rebuild trust, it shouldn’t start with new forms or unfiltered Google Docs but with clear, consistent, and easily accessible curriculum materials, as district policy already requires. Parents shouldn’t have to submit public records requests to see what their children are learning.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor affirmed that religious liberty doesn’t end at the schoolhouse door. The challenge now is to ensure that the district lives up to both the letter and the spirit of that ruling — by treating parents not as obstacles to manage, but as partners in education.
Rosalind Hanson is an MCPS parent and the chairwoman of the Montgomery County Chapter of Moms for Liberty.