Does the American education system deserve our trust? Gallup polls show a steady decline of trust in higher education. The recurring stories of violent chaos erupting across the university landscape do nothing to increase colleges’ credibility. The protests and some of the universities’ anemic responses are, as Shakespeare’s Macbeth lamented of life, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” But it makes for compelling television.
It’s not just in higher education, though, that we’re seeing questionable behavior by those shaping the next generation. Lost in the milieu of university madness is another story about education and many unionized educators’ disdainful true colors when it comes to parents.
The Chicago Teachers Union published a list of demands for its new collective bargaining agreement which specifically states that teachers should not be required to inform parents of actions the school takes related to children’s physical, mental, and emotional health:
“No bargaining unit member will be required to reveal a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission—even to the student’s family. The board shall use bargaining unit members’ personal name and pronouns at all times. The board will encourage all staff to use students’ personal name and personal pronouns, specifically distinguishing student preference in the classroom versus when communicating home to families in order to respect students’ privacy. Employees will be encouraged to ask students about how staff should refer to the student when interacting with family members before all events that include family members.”
Withholding crucial information about a child’s mental health from parents is bad enough, but this policy would enable and encourage teachers to deceive parents by hiding important information about their children’s health and well-being.
This is but the latest example demonstrating the union education establishment is increasingly at odds with parents. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten worked tirelessly to keep children out of school during the COVID-19 panic. With students at home and online, the still undefeated law of unintended consequences revealed to parents the controversial material being taught in government schools. Concerned parents began showing up to school board meetings to voice their opposition to sexually explicit material and the Marxist lies of critical race theory-based curriculum, which divides children based on race. The National Association of School Boards responded by requesting the U.S. Justice Department investigate the parents under laws meant for domestic terrorists.
Is it any wonder that parental rights laws are finally gaining traction in state legislatures around the nation? In Tennessee, for example, SB 2749/HB 2936 declares, “A public employee, other than law enforcement personnel, shall not encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from the child’s parent. A public employee shall not withhold from a child’s parent information that is relevant to the physical, emotional, or mental health of the child.”
For parents without options such as charter schools, homeschooling, or private schools, eternal vigilance is the price of “free education.” Fortunately, there are now more resources available to assist them in advocating for their rights as parents and for the best interests of their children. The Promise to America’s Parents by Alliance Defending Freedom is one such effort.
Parental rights are pre-political, written in the laws of nature and nature’s God, and protected by our Constitution. Our nation’s children are not “all our children” as President Joe Biden claimed. As the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized, children are not “mere creature[s] of the state.” Mothers and fathers deserve cooperation from schools to feed young minds with knowledge and wisdom, not political ideology and harmful theories of sexuality and gender. G.K. Chesterton observed, “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” When that soul is in distress, it is up to parents to provide the remedy, but how can they do that if schools are keeping them in the dark?
Our schools should prioritize academic achievement and leave the parenting to parents. But too often in recent years, the once-sacred trust between parents and schools has been violated. It will take work in the form of parental rights legislation and even litigation to restore a proper relationship between families and government-run school systems. Until the school boards, teachers’ unions, and bureaucratic administrators get an unmistakable reminder of who is in charge of child development in this nation, parents should adopt President Ronald Reagan’s strategy: “Trust but verify.”
Lathan Watts, who obtained his law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law, is vice president of public affairs for Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal).
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