Fox’s Kennedy suggests getting rid of public schools amid school prayer fight

A host on Fox News on Monday during a discussion on a school prayer case before the Supreme Court suggested local governments across the country should consider doing away with public schools, saying “maybe we should not have the government involved in education at all.”

Lisa Kennedy, the host, offered the remarks on Monday’s “Outnumbered” during a discussion about a case involving a high school football coach who was reprimanded for holding postgame prayers on the football field’s 50-yard line.

Kennedy said the case will be “a very important case for religious liberty.”

The moment, Kennedy said, could also serve as “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.”

Kennedy said eliminating government from public schools would allow “parents and teachers and administrators to make those decisions themselves instead of having the government imposing it on them.”

“It is the public school aspect of this that is creating the legal challenge,” she added.

Harris Faulkner, another host on the show, asked, “And what do we do with the people who can’t afford private, like what does that look like? Because each state allots some money.”

“I’ll tell you why I say that,” Kennedy responded. “It’s because the two most powerful teachers unions in the country are opposed to coach [Joseph] Kennedy. They are using their heft and their influence to make sure that he loses this case.”

The high court heard oral arguments on Monday in the case involving coach Joseph Kennedy, who was placed on paid leave by a Seattle-area school district for violating a school policy prohibiting staff from encouraging students to engage in prayer.

Parents’ role in school curricula was one of the key messages that helped Republicans retake the governor’s mansion in Virginia last year and is widely expected to be a wedge issue GOP hopefuls will drive home in the run-up to the fall’s midterm elections.