The primary stakeholder in schools: Parents or educrats?
Someone I know from California told me recently that he has decided to pull his child out of public school and enroll him instead into a private, Christian school.
Why? Because during some of the Zoom instruction during the coronavirus pandemic, this concerned parent discovered some of the lessons they were trying to foist on his child. In this case, it was the anti-American historical revisionism that disgusted this parent.
Multiply this story many times over, and we are seeing a very important development right now. Many parents across the nation are finding better ways to educate their children, including homeschool and home-school co-ops, instead of the failing public schools teaching their children.
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But the Left is pushing back. Perhaps the most galling thing about this debate is the arrogance of the educrats who think they are the ones who should be responsible for the education of the children—not the parents.
Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe let the cat out of the bag. The Democrat is currently running for governor again, and he said in a recent debate: "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."
Unfortunately, McAuliffe is not alone in these sentiments.
Writing in WND.com, Art Moore points out that parents are supposedly “not the ‘primary stakeholder’ in their children's education”—even though they are “important stakeholders.” Who says this? Some leftwing nut job on a TikTok video? No, Joe Biden’s education secretary Miguel Cordona said this.
What’s more, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) asked the Biden administration to treat concerned parents at school board meetings as essentially domestic terrorists. They write, “Now, we ask that the federal government investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against our public school officials through existing statutes, executive authority…to preserve public school infrastructure and campuses.”
They add: “Further, this increasing violence is a clear and present danger to civic participation.”
Apparently, President Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland agrees. He is now claiming that concerned parents protesting at school board meetings are guilty of “domestic terrorism.”
In his End of Day Report on Oct. 5, Gary Bauer of American Values responds, “So, let's get this straight: The radical forces indoctrinating your children are trying to shut you up by utilizing the same agency, the FBI, that the left used to smear Donald Trump with the fake Russia collusion hoax.” He observes that the Biden administration is “turning the FBI loose on soccer moms.”
Critics note that Garland has a conflict of interest here. Bauer says: “His son-in-law is the president of a consulting firm that makes millions of dollars contracting with school boards to push the left's radical agenda.”
If you look at the videos of the unruly school board meetings, what you see are parents visibly upset that their children are being taught a bunch of lies. They are not resorting to “violence.”
The most prominent areas of curriculum conflict include:
- Critical race theory (CRT), where by definition whites are oppressors and blacks are the oppressed. Little children who have done nothing wrong are being vilified for the color of their skin.
- Historical revisionism, which turns American history on its head. The settlers and founders of America were far from perfect. But they created a nation with unparalleled freedom and prosperity. Now political correctness has turned America’s founders into villains. One can only wonder why those would-be American immigrants trekking through Central America are currently risking their lives to come to this supposedly evil country.
- The dogmatic LGBTQ agenda. Many children (mostly girls) are questioning if they were born in the correct gender. Because of this fad that is sweeping through many of the schools and is being promoted by teachers and school administrators, many young people are undergoing “irreversible damage” as puberty blockers and even surgery are administered to try and resolve a conflict that usually resolves itself in puberty. The fallout is horrible. Journalist Abigail Shrier wrote a book documenting this dangerous trend titled Irreversible Damage.
The schools and teachers' unions are acting as if they own the children. They do not. Children are on loan by God to their parents. Indeed, who is responsible for children’s education? Parents or educrats?
Who knows better than the parents what is in the children’s best interest? To whom have the children been given? Hasn’t God given the parents the responsibility of teaching their children, even if they delegate that teaching to others? Traditionally, teachers have been described as “in loco parentis”—acting on behalf of the parents, not against them.
Our current education crisis could actually prove to be a good thing, but only if we handle it correctly. This could be the time when many Americans seek to rescue their children from leftist and false indoctrination promoted by too many of our public schools.
Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of D. James Kennedy Ministries, where Jerry also serves as senior producer and an on-air host. He has written/co-written 33 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.). www.djkm.org? @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.com
