{"id":91277,"date":"2023-03-27T15:17:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T20:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91277"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:17:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T20:17:58","slug":"91277","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91277","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/USA\/Education\/2023\/0324\/32-states-and-counting-Why-parents-bills-of-rights-are-sweeping-US\">32 states and counting: Why parents bills of rights are sweeping US.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to parental bills of rights, not all legislation is created equal.<\/p>\n<p>The House on Friday narrowly passed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/118th-congress\/house-bill\/5\/text?s=1&amp;r=1&amp;q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr5%22%5D%7D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">House Resolution 5<\/a>, known as the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would amend existing federal education laws. A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/parentalrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/2023-PRA-Introduced-in-Congress-press-release.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Parental Rights Amendment<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. Constitution also has been proposed.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple pieces of proposed legislation at the state level seek broad protections for parents, using language such as to \u201cdirect the upbringing\u201d of their children. A bill in Arkansas, meanwhile, revolves around medical records when a child is removed from parental or guardian custody. And legislation in Connecticut would create a bill of rights for parents of students learning English as a second language.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-intro row\">\n<p class=\"title text-center\"><strong>WHY WE WROTE THIS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A desire for parents to have greater say in the education of their children has resulted in a tangle of partisan wars and policy changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The proposed laws have fueled questions about the role parents should play in their children\u2019s education. At the same time, they have fanned partisan flames, weaponizing a longstanding concept \u2013 parental rights \u2013 that academic experts and advocates alike say should not be politically charged.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s driving all of this? Will Estrada, president of the Parental Rights Foundation, says the pandemic accelerated parents\u2019 desire to have more say in children\u2019s schooling, regardless of political inclinations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s varying degrees of what parents want as a response,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think the fact that you have such a broad range of parental rights legislation really speaks to the fact that the legislators and elected officials are trying to respond to the concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of mid-March, proposed parental rights legislation has emerged in at least 32 states, up from 18 states in 2022, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In some states, lawmakers are considering two or more pieces of such legislation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s in a term?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Connecticut, the strife over parental rights may land on the steps of a public university.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"injection\">\n<div id=\"body-promo-a\" class=\"ezp-inbody-promo anonymous\" data-widget-name=\"promo-a\">\n<div class=\"ezv-listing ezc-csm-story  with-thumbnail ezws-3\">\n<div class=\"story-detail\">\n<h3 class=\"story-headline\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;\">Families for Freedom, a grassroots organization that advocates for parental rights, has planned a rally next week at the University of Connecticut School of Law, which is <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;\" href=\"https:\/\/law.uconn.edu\/about\/events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hosting a symposium<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0titled \u201cAre Parental Rights Always in the Best Interest of Children?\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Susan Zabohonski, founder of Families for Freedom, says the group formed during the pandemic, shortly before Connecticut ended religious exemptions for childhood vaccine requirements for schools. Now, it numbers roughly 1,700 followers on Facebook and 200 active members throughout the state, she says.<\/p>\n<p>For Ms. Zabohonski, whose daughter attends a private Christian school, the group\u2019s work is guided by what she sees as a societal \u201cchipping away at the family unit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In action, she says, their work involves educating people in towns across Connecticut about the legislative process and parental rights.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"injection\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhen people feel educated on a subject, I think they feel a little more empowered,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The nationwide parental rights movement, however, has taken heat for association with hostile interactions at school board meetings, where hot-button issues such as pandemic protocols, critical race theory, sex education, and gender identity have sparked public outcry.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the problem is the discourse surrounding the term \u201cparental rights,\u201d says Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian and author of \u201cClassroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s often used to describe conservative activism around education, which, she says, while accurate in some respects, leads to an \u201cimpoverished\u201d understanding of an issue with far greater nuance. Ms. Mehlman Petrzela contends that most parents, regardless of their background, ethnicity, or political leanings, \u201cwant to have some insight, if not control, over their kids\u2019 experiences at school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She points to a Supreme Court decision this week as an example of a parental rights issue. The justices unanimously sided with a deaf student, Miguel Luna Perez, who had sued a public school district, alleging that he received an inadequate education. Mr. Perez and his parents had argued that aides who were supposed to help him translate lessons were often absent or unqualified.<\/p>\n<p>As Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in the court\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/22pdf\/21-887_k53m.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">opinion<\/a>, the ruling \u201cholds consequences not just for Mr. Perez but for a great many children with disabilities and their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"injection\"><\/aside>\n<p>Ms. Mehlman Petrzela says the discourse could benefit from more balance in the form of default assumptions \u2013 that teachers have expertise and deserve trust, and that parents care about their children and deserve to know what\u2019s happening in schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we operate from that set of assumptions, then when difficult situations do come up, there is an opportunity for a much more productive resolution that doesn\u2019t involve, you know, online mobs and angry protests and threats,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The legislative landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s too soon to say how the proposals will fare during this lawmaking cycle. At the state level, most remain pending in legislatures, and at least six have failed this year. In prior legislative sessions, the bulk of them failed \u2013 with a few notable exceptions, such as in Florida, which in 2021 approved its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2021\/241\/?Tab=BillText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">version of a parental bill of rights<\/a>. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also championed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics dubbed the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d law, which his administration is now seeking to expand through 12th grade.<\/p>\n<p>At least 10 states have existing statutes that mention parental rights, six of which are broad provisions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The other states have more specific language geared toward certain student groups or issues.<\/p>\n<div class=\"in_story_embed embed-object embed-image \">\n<div class=\"image-data\">\n<div class=\"caption-bar text-wrapper  \">\n<div>The murkiness of legislative success, however, didn\u2019t stop Connecticut state Sen. Rob Sampson, a Republican, from giving it a try. His <a href=\"https:\/\/custom.statenet.com\/public\/resources.cgi?id=ID:bill:CT2023000S278&amp;cuiq=f4169890-849e-596d-8444-2925042eb16d&amp;client_md=2325c4101ae64f2cb781e43781170dae&amp;mode=current_text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed bill<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 one of several in the state that fall under the umbrella of parental rights \u2013 would have protected parents\u2019 ability to withdraw their children from courses, without explanation, unless the class was required for graduation. It noted that parents \u201cshould remain the ultimate authority in what their children are being taught in school.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>State Senator Sampson described it as \u201cdead on arrival,\u201d given Democrats\u2019 control of both houses of the legislature and governor\u2019s office. But he wanted his constituents to know where he stood on the issue and see if any Democrats would signal support.<\/p>\n<p>He says parents\u2019 growing distrust with local school boards and insights they gleaned while children learned remotely are spurring the rise of parental rights-themed legislation.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"injection\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cNow, it\u2019s less about the local school district making decisions to suit the parents,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about the school district taking direction from people that are involved in political activism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But other organizations have come out swinging against what they see as a culture war-influenced movement that could lead to book bans and curriculum changes. Ariel Taylor Smith, senior director of policy and action at the National Parents Union, says the proposed legislation creates \u201cunnecessary tension\u201d and distracts from more important concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Ms. Smith says legislation should be laser-focused on academic progress, especially after pandemic disruptions left many students behind in reading and math.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m optimistic that parents will be able to come together and build an actual parent bill of rights that\u2019s grounded in ensuring that our schools are advancing kids\u2019 learning,\u201d she says. \u201cI just don\u2019t think that a lot of these attempts are that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joann Mickens, executive director of Parents for Public Schools, wholly supports parent engagement, but she is concerned the legislative trend may only \u201cflex voices that are loud and maybe even strident\u201d without regard for what the majority of parents may believe or want. If legislation becomes law, she wonders, will that impose one set of parents\u2019 beliefs on the rest of the students?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that much of what we\u2019re seeing today is no different than the violence and the opposition to the Civil Rights movement,\u201d she says. \u201cI see that people are afraid. They don\u2019t want the changes to their way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"injection\" data-widget-name=\"body-last-injection\">\n<div id=\"ezve-inbody-newsletter-widget\" class=\"eznid-1057291\">Mr. Estrada of the Parental Rights Foundation, for his part, asserts that a large share of parental rights bills carry a \u201cbroadly bipartisan message\u201d that doesn\u2019t veer into partisan territory, such as critical race theory. While many bills seek some form of curriculum transparency, he says there\u2019s a fine line between providing more information while not unfairly burdening schools.<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe just want some level of transparency of the major things that are being taught in the public schools,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>32 states and counting: Why parents bills of rights are sweeping US. When it comes to parental bills of rights, not all legislation is created equal. The House on Friday narrowly passed\u00a0House Resolution 5, known as the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would amend existing federal education laws. A\u00a0Parental Rights Amendment\u00a0to the U.S. Constitution &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91277\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools","category-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91278,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91277\/revisions\/91278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}