Vicky Arias, FISM News
Public school unions get “concierge-like service” from the Department of Education while parents continue to be viewed as a lower priority, according to a new report on Tuesday from Protect the Public Trust, an organization devoted to disseminating information on possible government officials’ misconduct.
The report explained that the Biden administration gives parents “vastly inequitable treatment” compared to the school unions, citing the fact that Education Department (ED) officials and select school union representatives were in contact with each other sometimes as many as two times a week.
According to The Center Square, the director of Protect the Public Trust, Michael Chamberlain, explained the disparity in the attention given to unions over parents.
Documents “reveal what everyone already knew, that the teachers’ unions are driving the Department of Education bus,” Chamberlain said. “While the unions could not have received better access had they had an office in the building, the [Education] Department completely botched an attempt to create a parent advisory group. The sad reality is that parents may be spending more time discussing education policy with FBI agents monitoring their discussions at school board meetings than with the Department of Education.”
IDENTITY IDEOLOGY IN THE CURRICULUM
The divide between parents and education officials has become increasingly wider in recent years as schools, some at the elementary level, have begun teaching students radical curricula surrounding issues pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Many leftist ideologues have championed introducing LGBTQ issues, gender identity, and sexual orientation discussions into schools. According to a 2022 Washington Post report, seven states “require that curriculums include LGBTQ topics … and the federal government recommends that schools include gender identity in their sex education programs.”
The report goes on to explain a curriculum, called “Rights, Respect, Responsibility,” that was developed for first graders. The curriculum tells educators to explain to students that their gender can be changed.
“You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts,” the curriculum explains. “You might feel like a girl even if you have body parts that some people tell you are ‘boy’ parts. And you might not feel like you’re a boy or a girl, but you’re a little bit of both. No matter how you feel, you’re perfectly normal!”
PARENTS TREATED AS ENEMIES
Parents have come out in droves in recent years to fight back against the indoctrination of their children on topics like sexuality and critical race theory and were met, at times, with heavy pushback.
The National School Board Association in 2021 sent a letter to the Justice Department asking them to investigate protests from parents who disagreed with COVID mandates and instruction on critical race theory in schools as possible “domestic terrorism.”
In March of 2022, 14 states sued the Biden administration “to force the … [it] to release documents … on its labeling parents domestic terrorists for voicing their opinions at school board meetings across the country,” according to a press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Furthermore, FISM News reported today that Republican U.S. senators recently grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over several issues in the DOJ, including the view of parents as “domestic terrorists.”
PARENTS OR THE STATE?
Arizona state Senator, Republican Justine Wadsack, recently posted a video of an Arizona teacher making disparaging comments on parents’ roles in their children’s education because they haven’t been properly ‘vetted’ and don’t have advanced degrees.
“I have a master’s degree … we all have advanced degrees,” the teacher says.
What do the parents have? Are we vetting the backgrounds of our parents? Are we allowing the parents to choose the curriculum and the books that our children are going to read? I think that it’s a mistake … We must remember that the purpose of public education is not to teach only what parents want their children to be taught, it is to teach them what society needs them to be taught.
National Christian conservative radio host Janet Parshall responded on Twitter to the teacher’s comments, equating them with Marxism.
“Arrogance. Hubris. And when you think about it — Marxism,” Parshall posted. “The state knows better than the parent. Break the eternal bond. Mom and dad wake up. This is war.”
Arrogance. Hubris. And when you think about it – Marxism. The state knows better than the parent. Break the eternal bond. Mom and dad wake up. This is war. https://t.co/D8WmcvBitc
— Janet Parshall (@parshalltalk) February 28, 2023