Almost all Republicans, but no Democrats, voted to pass H.R.6056 – Parents Bill of Rights Act. It was definitely a “win” for the Republicans as well as the parents who have been fighting for the right to have a voice in what is taught to their children. However, the chances that it will pass the Senate are slim, and President Biden would probably stamp VETO on it if it got to his desk.
Even with the knowledge that it may never come to fruition, it was worth the battle. There have been many such fights over the years. And this one is far from settled. The lawsuits of previous times are reflected in today’s disagreements about who has control over the education of America’s children, but in my opinion, to a far greater degree.
This is a brief summary of the main points of the bill:
- The curriculum for each elementary and secondary school grade level must be made public.
- Changes to academic standards must be made public.
- There shall be a report card for each local educational agency, including the budget.
- Publicly disseminate the plan for parent engagement.
- Publicly disseminate the right of parents to information about their children’s education:
- review the curriculum
- academic standards
- meet with teacher at least twice each school year
- review budget
- provide list of book and other reading materials contained in the library of their child’s school
- right to address the school board
- right to information about violent activity
- right to information about any plans to eliminate gifted and talented programs
I’ve excerpted a portion of the Opinion in the case of Fields v. Palmdale School District from 2006. I believe the passages I’ve emphasized and highlighted will probably be addressed in the arguments against parents who are advocating for this Parents Bill of Rights. These are passages I think will interest you most.
Our opinion holds in essence that the Constitution does not afford parents a substantive due process or privacy right to control through the federal courts the information that public schools make available to their children. What information schools provide is a matter for the school boards, not the courts, to decide. [pg. 5423]
[2] Accordingly, upon full review, we reaffirm our opinion with two amendments to the text. To make our holding more precise we delete the sentence appearing at lines 9-10 of page
15076 of the Slip Opinion (“In sum, we affirm that the Meyer-Pierce right does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door.”) and substitute therefor the following: “In sum, we affirm that the Meyer-Pierce due process right of parents to make decisions regarding their children’s education does not entitle individual parents to enjoin [order] school boards from providing information the boards determine to be appropriate in connection with the performance of their educational functions, or to collect monetary damages based on the information the schools provide.” [pg. 5424] [Link]
Remember the book by Hillary Clinton, It Takes A Village? Phyllis Schlafly stated regarding the above opinion:
When Hillary Clinton proclaimed that it takes a village to raise a child, many people didn’t realize that she was enunciating liberal dogma that the government should raise and control children. This concept fell on fertile soil when it reached activist judges eager to be anointed as elders of the child-raising village.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just ruled that parents’ fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children “does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door,” and that a public school has the right to provide its students with “whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise.”
Instead of using the “village” metaphor, the judges substituted a Latin phrase that has the same effect. Parens patriae (the country as parent) was a legal concept used long ago by the English monarchy, but it never caught on in the United States and the few mentions of it in U.S. cases are not relevant to this decision.
The Ninth Circuit court said that since the government has put limits on parents’ rights by requiring school attendance, therefore, the school can tell the students whatever it wants about sex, guns, the military, gay marriage, and the origins of life. The judges emphasized that once children are put in a public school, the parents’ “fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve warned you about the possibility of losing your right to have a voice in your kids’ schooling, and it probably won’t be the last. But, perhaps now you better understand what prompted President Biden to say at the 2022 Teacher of the Year ceremony, “They’re all our children. And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
So if you want school choice to be available in your state, you may have to fight for it. If you want the Parents Bill of Rights to be passed in the Senate, you had better start contacting your Senators right now, and keep it up until they vote on this Bill.