FREE-MARKET FAMILY POLICY AND THE NEW PARENTAL RIGHTS LAWS

How can government best support children's interests? Recently, federal and state policies have suggested conflicting answers to this question. One answer comes from a series of economic measures supporting families that were passed by Congress during the pandemic. These measures rested on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:North Carolina law review 2023-06, Vol.101 (5), p.1305
Main Author: Eichner, Maxine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Autonomy
Child welfare
Economic aspects
Family policy
Government finance
Harm principle (Ethics)
Laws, regulations and rules
Parent and child (Law)
Pluralism
Political aspects
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Summary:How can government best support children's interests? Recently, federal and state policies have suggested conflicting answers to this question. One answer comes from a series of economic measures supporting families that were passed by Congress during the pandemic. These measures rested on the rationale that families do better when they are buffered from the market. A second answer has emerged from the many states that have passed "parental rights" bills restricting children's education in public schools. Supporters of these measures contend that children do better when their parents are given broad authority to rear them. This Article juxtaposes the family economic support measures with parental rights laws. It shows that these two sorts of policies were developed to respond to different pressures and problems and are likely to have very different impacts on children as a result. Specifically, family economic supports responded to the significant economic hardship experienced by U.S. families during the pandemic and produced demonstrable and significant benefits for children's well-being. In contrast, recent parental rights measures are motivated by a convergence of interests among political elites seeking partisan gain and voters expressing cultural backlash against progressive change and their threatened loss of privilege. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their origins, these measures appear likely to stymy both children's well-being and their adequate education for citizenship. The fact that parental rights measures appear likely to become long-lasting fixtures of American law while family economic supports were largely withdrawn as the pandemic waned should therefore cause alarm for those who support children's best interests.
ISSN:0029-2524