"Parental Rights" in Education

Which Parents? Which Rights?

By a vote of 213-208, the House of Representatives today approved their Parents Bill of Rights Act on a near party-line vote. The Washington Post describes it like this:

The 30-page bill updates the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require public schools to make certain information available online, including class curriculums, readings lists, library books and the school’s budget. Administrators also would have to notify parents of any violent acts that happen on school grounds and to collaborate with them on how best to protect their child’s online data, among other measures.

On its face, this sounds sort of innocuous. But that’s if you ignore the motivations of the proponents. To them, this is about squashing indoctrination and protecting conservative parents who are increasingly making demands of school board members.

Consider the position taken by Louisiana representative Julia Letlow. Roll Call quotes her:

“This bill aims to bring more transparency and accountability to education, allowing parents to be informed,” Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., said during Thursday’s debate on the proposal, which Republicans have named the “Parents Bill of Rights.”

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen too many instances where, rather than opening their doors to welcome parents in as partners, some schools instead slammed them shut and said that government bureaucrats know what's best for our children,” Letlow said. “Parents across this country have overwhelmingly spoken out that they have had enough.”

Sure, some parents were concerned over the response of school districts to the Covid pandemic. And data is coming in that suggests that our response may have been draconian, especially when contrasted with mental health issues for students and potential loss of learning. At the time, we didn’t know what risk children were facing, especially in the opening months of the pandemic.

But that anger over closures wasn’t about these things. It was about a relatively small number of angry parents confronting school board members. Yes, the school board association erred in calling those parents “domestic terrorists” (and said so almost immediately) and the DOJ did tell its offices to be vigilant (but not to go arrest people).

The Post story explains the ways in which this legislation aligns with Republican’s long-term desire to abolish the US Department of Education. Schools, they argue, are a local issue. This is why Letlow argues about “government bureaucrats”. Although Republican rhetoric has recently been deployed against what they call “government schools” — which means any local school system.

Of course, conservatives’ concern over local control only extends to the state level. As we’ve seen in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and more, state legislatures and governors feel very comfortable dictating what can and cannot be in the curriculum. Florida is now considering extending its “Don’t Say Gay” exclusion to all of K-12 education.

Even charter schools get into the act. The big news yesterday was about a Florida charter that fired a principal after a teacher showed sixth graders a photo of Michelangelo’s David. As Charlie Sykes observed in his newsletter this morning, this was straight out of an episode of The Simpsons. Dan Kois of Slate interviewed the charter’s board chair and it didn’t go well.

Tellingly, the school in question is built on the Hillsdale Curriculum, a “sort-of” classical approach to education. This response by the board chair is pretty remarkable:

Well, we’re Florida, OK? Parents will decide. Parents are the ones who are going to drive the education system here in Florida. The governor said that, and we’re with the governor. Parents don’t decide what is taught. But parents know what that curriculum is. And parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture.

Parents choose this school because they want a certain kind of education. We’re not gonna have courses from the College Board. We’re not gonna teach 1619 or CRT crap. I know they do all that up in Virginia. The rights of parents, that trumps the rights of kids. Teachers are the experts? Teachers have all the knowledge? Are you kidding me? I know lots of teachers that are very good, but to suggest they are the authorities, you’re on better drugs than me.

Now I’m the first to recognize that charter schools are often formed for special purpose missions. My granddaughter goes to a language immersion school. So if one wants to have a “classical school” that avoids the 1619 project and CRT and certain books in the library, more power to them.

The real issue is that the sentiments of the chair are shared by conservative critics of public schools are well. The so-called Moms for Liberty has been at the forefront of the state-level education “reforms”. A small number of organized groups are challenging books in libraries, not because their child found something troubling, but because they preemptively want certain kinds of books (LGBTQ, Race, and Young Adult fiction) removed.

Many of these critics also share the chair’s question: “Teachers are the experts?” The argument is that parents know best about what their children need to be taught. Of course, if that were true more parents would be active participants in parent-teacher conferences and make sure that their kid’s homework was completed. The real issue is that some parents want to say “you can’t teach my kid THAT!”. In the Roll Call story, Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts

said the bill would empower small groups of conservative activists to ban books they deem objectionable. 

“This bill is going to be weaponized by far-right groups and used to threaten schools with legal action if they don't pull books off the shelves,” Neal said. “It’s going to force teachers to decide between staying silent and teaching something that certain politicians ... don’t like. It’s already happening, for God’s sake. Ask the teacher in Iowa who was told that they could not teach that slavery was wrong. Ask the teacher in Texas who was told that they have to teach both ... perspectives on the Holocaust.”

By the way, people my age — which includes a majority of congress — were taught back in the day when teachers were seen as authority figures. I don’t see evidence that we were all indoctrinated to hate America.

I think the vast majority of parents view their school teachers the way we’re told they view congress — their representative is fine but congress is broken. My kid’s teacher, they say, is one of the good ones. But I worry about those other teachers out there that I’ve heard about on cable news and social media. Of course, much of the bedlam is being caused by people who 1) don’t have children of school age, 2) do, but homeschool, or 3) do, but send them to schools based on the Hillsdale Curriculum.

While the legislation passed by the House is not likely to see the light of day in the Senate, those bills that have passed state legislatures and been signed by governors are still in play. That means that those parents who aren’t motivated by conservative politics or who fear the boogymen they see on cable news, need to demand their rights as well.

They need to go to school board meetings (and/or run for school board) to protect the teachers’ expertise and authority and to serve as a safeguard against those radical elements who are disrupting education. These parents, the vast majority of whom do not agree with the flamethrowers, have rights too. It’s only a matter of time before their rights get affirmed in state courts across the country.