‘Our Children Do Not Belong to the Government’

Florida recently passed a landmark Parents' Bill of Rights. But in the long run, parental rights laws and anti–critical race theory bills can’t end the curriculum wars and secure the rights of parents. Only school choice can.

Full text, links, and credits: https://reason.com/video/2022/01/28/florida-parents-take-back-the-classroom/
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"It is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children." That's the opening line of Florida's Parents' Bill of Rights, signed into law in June 2021. Similar bills have been proposed in Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, and even at the federal level.

"Our children do not belong to the government," says Patti Sullivan, state coordinator for Parental Rights Florida, which has pushed for legislation of this sort since 2013.

"We do not co-parent with the government. And these entities seem to think that they are entitled to our children, and they are not," says Sullivan.

State bans on the teaching of critical race theory (CRT), which have swept the nation, are a more aggressive attempt to limit the discretion that teachers and administrators have over what's taught in school. They've been especially popular with voters.

Republican Glenn Youngkin ousted the heavily favored Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race after he campaigned against CRT in schools, and on his first day in office, he banned it from classrooms via executive order. Four other states have also banned CRT, and several more are considering similar bills.

However, opponents of CRT bans and more modest bills to force schools to post their curricula online say that "curriculum transparency bills are just thinly veiled attempts at chilling teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in schools," as the American Civil Liberties Union recently tweeted.

Parents have never had the "right to shape their kids' school curriculum," authors of a recent Washington Post op-ed argued. If that's what parents want, it says, they should opt out and "send their children to private or religious schools."

But why should families who can afford private school be the only ones who have a say in how their children are taught?

"I'm pretty skeptical of the government deciding what should be taught in any type of school," says Corey DeAngelis, national director of research for the American Federation for Children and a senior fellow at Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this website). He says public school parents should also have the right to choose the most fitting academic setting for their kids. The solution is to "fund students, not systems," giving families the choice to spend education dollars on the schooling of their choosing instead of the one-size-fits-all approach offered by traditional public schools.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller; additional camera by Isaac Reese; graphics by Nodehaus

Photo credits: Karla Ann Cote/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Karla Ann Cote/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Max Herman/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Kostas Lymperopoulos/Cal Sport Media/Newscom; Ken Cedeno/UPI/Newscom; Annette Holloway/Icon Sportswire DMJ/Annette Holloway/Icon Sportswire/Newscom; Photo by fauxels from Pexels; Video by RODNAE Productions from Pexels; Dirk Shadd/ZUMA Press/Newscom