According to a recent survey conducted by the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, 63% of the respondents believe that parents should have the final say, and should be able to opt out their children out of, morally objectionable or inappropriate content, while 37% percent say public schools should have the final say, with no opt out provisions. The breakdown by Political inclination is: 52% Democrats, 64% Independents, 74% Republicans are for parental control. Interestingly to me; Parents, 66%, non parents 64% were very close.
One can look to the recent Virginia Elections (also school boards on Long Island!), to see parents are more directly and politically engaged with their children’s education than pre-Covid. Once parents saw through “At home schooling”, what was being taught, they began objecting to its content. When propaganda was taught in school out of sight, it was much easier to disguise the content. The issues arising with CRT, LBGTQ, and DEI are much easier concepts to sell until the actual content, danger created and divisiveness are actually seen.
How did we get here? It started with No Child Left Behind and the Common Core Curriculum. These were wonderful ideas; to Nationalize educational standards, the purpose of which was to elevate the lower performers and establish national standards of educational achievement. Unfortunately, like most governmental programs, the net results were not higher achievement, but increased bureaucracy, confusing processes many parents could not understand (see Common Core Math) and an increased reliance on the Institutions to do the right thing. These were Bi-Partisan programs that began the erosion of parental involvement and control of the local public educational systems. Our educational experts became “Educrats”enhancing only themselves and glorifying their programs to the detriment of the students and community, as a whole.
The Educrats could get away with this and more, until Covid brought their “teachings” into the home. Parents, many of whom never really paid much attention to the actual content of their children’s education, now were seeing first hand, what was actually being taught and the methods that were in place to teach. Parents who had no clue how to do common core math, what CRT was, and how equality of opportunity was being replaced by equity of outcome, were outraged. What they did know was that America began in 1776 (not 1619), boys don’t use the girls restroom, Whites are not all oppressors, and Blacks are not all victims.
As the over played Covid threat (if there ever was one) waned, Educrats reluctantly reopened the Schools to in person classroom instruction with LBGTQ pronouns and bathroom policies, and CRT instruction in place. This was a Hill to high for many parents. School Boards nationwide became parental flashpoints, as parents rejected Educrats policies and programs. The National School Board Association coordinated a letter with and to President Biden requesting DOJ investigations of dissenting parents. This should be anathema to everyone with a brain. In fact, the NSBA had to withdraw its letter publicly after the backlash. As the President of Parents Defending Education, Nicole Neily stated, “ A $19 million Trade Association has nothing on a bunch of mad moms.”
Yet, 37% of those surveyed still think schools (and Educrats) should have the final say about America’s children’s education. 48% of the Democrats, 36% of the Independents and even 26% of the Republicans, agree. Frankly, it is scary that so many believe the government can do a better job raising America’s children, than American parents. It is likely many of these respondents are themselves reliant upon the government for their support and need it to survive. It is also true “No one in this world, so far as I know… has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” H.L. Mencken Chicago tribune Sept 19, 1926.
That is exactly what the Left is counting on.
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Welcome aboard, Bill!!!