EDUCATION FREEDOM
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Funds students, not systems. Unfortunately, school districts and unions hold all of the power in areas without educ...
Parents are increasingly concerned about their children’s schools. From Common Core math, declining literacy requirements, and flat out a-historical history and civics lessons to damaging critical race theories, restorative justice discipline practices, and social justice political activism on the part of teachers and school administrators, it seems that traditional learning is a thing of the past.
Parents are tired of this situation. But what can they do? Where can they go?
In this guide, we hope to help parents engage with teachers and teaching staff, school officials, other parents, and the local community. From simply talking to your child’s teacher to running for office, this guide will help you help your child gain a better education.
Engage with Teachers
Sometimes it can be as simple as calling, emailing, or meeting face-to-face with your child’s teacher. There are some exceptions, but most teachers want parents’ input and to make parents a part of their child’s learning process. Communication shouldn’t be a one-way street. Just like your child’s teacher provides a report card on your child’s educational progress, you should feel free to give feedback to the teacher about what your child is learning.
Here are some ideas for engaging with your child’s school.
Ask for the Curriculum, Read It, and Ask for Changes!
Opt Out! Take Your Child Out of School Programs
You are the parent! You are ultimately in charge of your child’s education. If, after reading the curriculum and attempting to make changes, you still aren’t comfortable with what’s being taught, opt your child out of that particular program. Specifically, the law protects parents’ rights to opt their children out of sex education classes and standardized tests. The Every Student Succeeds Act allows parents to refuse testing for their children.
Join Your PTA and Take a Leadership Role
Sadly, PTAs are not always reliable for helping parents deal with school officials. That’s why it’s important to get involved and to try to seek a leadership position within the PTA. PTA policies are often driven by its leadership, so get in there and lead! It’s important to be prepared to volunteer a lot of personal time. PTAs need parent volunteers and the way to get a leadership position is to show you care about the school and students. Volunteering will help you learn more about the school and the student population, parents’ concerns, the schools’ philosophy, and teacher and administration goals. You are likely to find allies and even friends! Once in a leadership position, you’ll be better situated to make changes and steer your school toward educational efforts over political activism.
That said, it’s important to know that the national PTA organization is closely aligned with teachers’ unions. In addition, the National PTA organization pushes exclusively left-wing and social justice causes—gun control, higher taxes, environmental regulations, allowing boys in girls’ bathrooms, pushing for critical race theory to be taught in schools, as well as opposing school choice. Not all local PTAs espouse these political ideologies or back these political issues, but the national PTA organization pushes politics instead of standing up for parents and children.
Meet the Superintendent, School Board Members and School Principals
In many school districts, the superintendent and other school officials host regular “coffee meetings” with parents and caregivers. This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself and tell the school officials a little bit about your child and your interest in being an active member of the school community. Regular attendance at these meetings will make you a familiar face, and they might be more willing to listen to you once you’ve established a personal, working relationship with them.
Run for School Board or Another Public Office
That may sound scary but, as a parent, you’re the perfect person to represent other parents and the concerns they have about the public schools. A first step on this journey might be working with the PTA. This will help you meet more parents, get to know the school administration, and learn leadership skills along the way.
Speak Up on Social Media and on Neighborhood Listservs
A good way to share information and to find allies is by using social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (see these guides—here, here, here, and here—for more information on these social media platforms). Local communities and even some neighborhoods also have listservs, which are groups dedicated to issues that affect a particular area or community. Depending on the rules of your community’s listservs (some don’t allow political discussions), this might be a good place to post your concerns and engage in polite and civil conversation about issues affecting your community and local school district.
Start a Facebook Group Dedicated to School Reform
Facebook has a feature where you can start a group to promote a particular issue or cause. This is an excellent tool to use for local engagement and community activism.
This is an excellent way to organize a grassroots group, find like-minded people, take polls and surveys, and get the attention of local media. For more information on starting a Facebook group, see the How To Engage on Facebook document.
Engage Local Media
State and local papers are often looking for content, especially from the perspective of locals. Share your perspective, experiences, and personal views. See the How to Write a Letter to The Editor and the How To Write an Opinion Editorial for more information on these topics.
States, including Virginia, have been working to ensure that parents can opt their children out of wearing masks in schools. Here are templates you can use to write to school administrators and teachers. There is a template for the state of Virginia and one for other states.
Virginia
Date
Dear [NAME],
We were thrilled to hear that our democratic process is working across the state and that our elected officials have recognized the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s health and wellbeing. Our children have suffered learning losses from school mask mandates for far too long. As you know, SB739 was signed into law on February 16 and will go into effect on March 1. Our children will attend school on March 1 without masks. Consider this our official mask opt-out for our children.
Thank you,
YOUR NAME
Other States
Date
Dear [NAME]
We are thrilled that masks are soon to become optional in schools. We are thrilled that you recognize the importance and right of parents to make decisions about their children’s health and wellbeing. Our community’s children have suffered learning loss from school mask mandates for far too long. Consider this our official mask opt-out for our child[ren].
Thanks you,
YOUR NAME
Sadly, school administrators are becoming increasingly adversarial when it comes to parents asking for information about their child’s education. Whether it’s questions about the curriculum, teacher activities in the classroom, discipline practices, school budgetary decisions, or school security issues, parents are often ignored, put off, or even told they don’t have a right to know.
It shouldn’t be that way. Parents deserve better!
The Freedom of Information Act (commonly called FOIA, pronounced “foy-ya”) became law in 1966. The law gives the public access to most, but not all, official records from any federal agency.
FOIA has become an important tool in keeping the federal government ethical and accountable and its policymaking practices transparent, and it has been used to expose government misconduct and financial waste, along with threats to the public’s health and safety.
While the FOIA applies to the federal government, each of the 50 states (as well as the District of Columbia and some territories) have passed similar sunshine laws, providing citizens with the records they need to keep their local government accountable.
If you want to file a FOIA request, follow these steps:
Facebook is a social media platform where individuals can share information with their family members, friends, and acquaintances. By setting up an account, you can “friend” people you know, follow news accounts, certain organizations, companies, political figures, celebrities, and other entities that matter to you—like your kid’s school or PTA or a particular store that you like. While you can “friend” anyone, Facebook is usually used to share more personal details of one’s life—family photos, stories, updates and memories. You can also share information and news that you find interesting or useful.
Rules for Posting: The content has to meet Facebook’s community standards rules.
Post a Disclaimer: You may want to add a legal disclaimer that states that posts and in this group are a reflection of the thoughts and opinion of the individual who has made the post and do not reflect those of [insert your group’s name here].