Since You Asked — Let Me Explain Education, Ernie

Guest Opinion by Angelo “Doc” Mancuso

 I would like to start off by listing what State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough believes about public education and then what I believe. He recently published a column claiming that Alabama’s public schools are locked in a cosmic war between “Christian civilization” and “woke, liberal, atheist humanists,” and I will be pulling from his own words.

In his telling, education isn’t about teaching children to read, write, or think — it’s a battlefield where only one worldview can survive.  Yarbrough has argued publicly that Alabama’s public schools are engaged in a spiritual and ideological war. He frames classrooms as battlegrounds, teachers as ideological actors, and students as participants in a cultural struggle. His message is clear: the central conflict in education is not academic — it is spiritual and political.

Ernie Yarbrough insists Alabama must choose between two extremes:

1.        His preferred version of government mandated religious instruction, or

2.        A dystopian “anti‑God, anti‑family” indoctrination he claims is happening in public schools.

Yarbrough paints public schools as hostile to faith, family, and morality. He argues that pastors and Christian citizens “retreated from the battlefield” and allowed schools to be taken over by secular forces. But the truth is simpler: it is easier to shout about Marxism than to fix the teacher shortage. It is easier to blame “atheist indoctrination” than to address literacy rates. It is easier to wage symbolic battles than to do the hard work of governing.

He dismisses education as “mere learning of facts” and mocks teachers as “educrats” obsessed with test scores. But parents — especially Christian parents — know better. Yarbrough ends his column with a call to “fight” for a specific religious worldview to dominate public education.

Those who know Ernie Yarbrough know he sees himself as a culture warrior riding in on a high horse like the actor Mel Gibson in the movie Braveheart, to correct those he believes are misguided or secretly plotting to harm children. That is what he believes.

Here is what I believe: I believe something different — and far more grounded in the daily reality of Alabama families. Public education is not a war. Teachers are not combatants. Children are not soldiers in anyone’s ideological crusade.

The teachers and administrators who teach Alabama’s kids in the public school system are professionals, many of them deeply faithful Christians, doing the steady, unglamorous work of preparing the next generation for adulthood.

Most Alabama parents, including Christian parents, aren’t asking the Legislature to turn classrooms into pulpits. They’re asking for something far more practical and far more biblical: stewardship.

They want their children prepared for the real world, not drafted into someone else’s political fight. Our schools are staffed by churchgoing teachers, led by Christian principals, coached by men and women who pray with their teams before games, and supported by bus drivers who know every child’s name and family.

These are not “woke revolutionaries.” They are the backbone of our communities — and for many families, the backbone of their churches and to suggest that these people — our neighbors — are part of a plot to “replace the Christian worldview” is not only insulting, it’s disconnected from reality.

A child who cannot read at grade level is not being prepared for life. A child who cannot do basic math is not being prepared for work. A child who cannot think critically is not being prepared for citizenship.

Alabama families already have the freedom to raise their children in their own faith traditions. And the reality is that Alabama’s public schools serve students of many different religions and backgrounds: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, nonreligious, and every child in between.

I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I am born again. I know the power of prayer, and nothing matters more to me than my faith. But I also understand that not everyone shares my beliefs — and I cannot make them do so. Faith is strongest when it is chosen, not imposed.

Thomas Jefferson expressed this clearly in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists: religion is “a matter which lies solely between Man & his God,” and government has no authority over a person’s faith or worship. That principle — the separation of church and state — was not meant to weaken religion, but to protect it. Jefferson understood that a diverse nation requires room for people of different beliefs to live together, disagree, and still maintain a functioning society.

People believe differently, and our Constitution recognizes that reality. This country was founded on freedom of religion — not the dominance of one religion over all others.

The overwhelming majority of our teachers and administrators in Alabama teach and do not practice indoctrination of their students.  Most Alabamians — especially Christian Alabamians — believe education should serve children, not political movements. Sure, there are some teachers and administrators who want to indoctrinate our children and those should be made to stop it or they can find themselves another line of work.

And that is why Alabama must reject the idea that our schools are battlegrounds and our children are soldiers. They are students — and they deserve better than to be used as props in someone else’s ideological crusade. Warriors are fine, but Alabama needs better jobs and lasting careers. We need more allied health jobs like nurses, lab and x-ray techs, software engineers, teachers, welders, electricians, coders and computer programmers, A.I. and cyber security engineers, robotic techs and advanced manufacturing workers and we need more willing to go into business and create a new generation of small business owners.

That is what I believe.

Angelo “Doc” Mancuso is a dermatological cancer surgeon and an Independent candidate for Alabama House District 7. 

For more information on Mancuso and his campaign, visit DocMancuso.com or follow his campaign on Facebook.

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