speaking recently at a theater in Davenport, Iowa, Donald Trump marveled at the crowd\u2019s reaction when he vowed to \u201cbring back parental rights into our schools\u201d. The line elicited thunderous applause \u2013 one of the loudest ovations of his nearly two-hour address.
\u201cCan you imagine what I\u2019m doing? I\u2019m saying, \u2018Parents, you have rights\u2019 \u2026 and the place goes crazy,\u201d remarked the former president, who is again seeking the Republican nomination.
With the 2024 election cycle looming, Republicans are leaning into the education culture wars, championing policies that they say will give parents more of a say in their children\u2019s education, from the subjects they are taught to the books they read, with hopes of appealing to suburban voters who recoiled from the party during the Trump years. In their telling, Republicans are the defenders of America\u2019s schoolchildren whose education is threatened by a leftwing ideology that promotes activism, racial history and gender fluidity over academic outcomes.
But critics and many educators say conservatives are using the term \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d as a guise to advance a rightwing education agenda that undermines public schools, whitewashes American history and marginalizes LGBTQ+ students.
The debate took center stage in the House this week, where Republicans broke into cheers after narrowly advancing their \u201cParents Bill of Rights\u201d. Friday\u2019s vote followed a contentious 16-hour committee hearing and a bitter floor debate over the legislation, whose sponsor argued would \u201cbring more transparency and accountability to education\u201d and whose opponents derisively rebranded the \u201cpolitics over parents act\u201d.
Democrats argued that the bill would only serve to embolden a far-right movement that has pushed book bans, restrictions on the instruction of American history and turned classrooms into \u201cground zero\u201d for conservative culture wars.
\u201cThis legislation has nothing to do with parental involvement,\u201d said Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader. \u201cIt has everything to do with jamming the extreme Maga Republican ideology down the throats of the children and the parents of the United States of America.\u201d
Though the legislation has little chance of advancing in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it will serve as a rallying cry for Republicans on the campaign trail.
The origins of the \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d movement, experts say, can be traced back to the 1925 \u201ctrial of the century\u201d in which a Tennessee biology teacher was fined for teaching evolution in violation of state law. The term has been invoked repeatedly in the decades since, notably in clashes related to desegregation, the red scare, sex education and homeschooling.
\u201cThe idea of parents\u2019 rights is really nothing new in American politics,\u201d said Melissa Deckman, the CEO of the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute who has written extensively about culture war battles in education.
The present-day movement emerged in response to the upheaval sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, when extended school lockdowns led to a burst of political activism by parents who felt overwhelmed and abandoned, and by the racial justice protests that erupted in the summer of 2020, with the murder of George Floyd. Conservative politicians were quick to seize on any backlash, channeling voter frustration into a sophisticated national campaign aimed at restricting instruction on race and gender.
As the presidential primary begins to take shape, the notional field of Republican hopefuls are using the education battles to distinguish themselves on an issue they believe has the potential to motivate their base.
By far the most aggressive education culture warrior has been Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is widely seen as Trump\u2019s strongest rival for the Republican nomination, though he has not formally entered the contest.
\u201cI think we have really done a great job of drawing a line in the sand to say the purpose of our schools is to educate kids not to indoctrinate kids,\u201d DeSantis said at a recent event in Des Moines, Iowa.
He has pointed to his successes in Florida, where he notably signed into law\u2002the Parental Rights in Education Act, branded by critics as \u201cdon\u2019t say gay\u201d, which forbids the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in early elementary grades. He also approved the \u201cStop Woke Act\u201d that restricts conversations around race in schools, colleges and even private workplaces; banned transgender athletes from competing on women\u2019s sports teams at public schools and colleges; and blocked high schools in the state from offering\u2002an Advanced Placement course on African American studies.
Emboldened by his re-election victory, DeSantis is now pushing a raft of education-related proposals that would go even further ahead of an anticipated White House run.
Not to be outflanked, Trump and the budding field of GOP candidates and potential contenders have also sharpened their attacks on the education system.
In Iowa this month, Trump vowed to prohibit the teaching of \u201ccritical race theory\u201d, \u201ctransgender insanity\u201d and \u201cany other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content\u201d in public classrooms while calling for universal school choice, the direct election of school principals by parents and breaking up the Department of Education.
Former vice-president Mike Pence, who built a reputation as a staunch social conservative and is weighing a run for president, has also staked out territory in the education wars, pushing what he calls a \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d agenda. In Iowa last month, he stood with conservative parents as a federal appeals court considered a case involving a local school district\u2019s policy to support transgender students.
Nikki Haley, Trump\u2019s former UN ambassador who is now challenging him for the nomination, has denounced critical race theory as \u201cun-American\u201d and blamed leftwing ideology for fueling a culture of \u201cwoke self-loathing\u201d she has called a \u201cvirus more dangerous than any pandemic\u201d. And in a likely preview of the education fights to come, Haley suggested Florida\u2019s so-called \u201cdon\u2019t say gay\u201d law \u201cdidn\u2019t go far enough\u201d.
\u2018A front-row seat\u2019
In 2021, Glenn Youngkin\u2019s victory in the race for Virginia\u2019s governor under the banner of \u201cParents matter\u201d in a state that had been steadily trending blue offered a model for Republicans candidates across the country.
\u201cDuring Covid, parents for the first time weren\u2019t just going to PTA conferences; they were literally turning their living rooms into classrooms and so they got a front-row seat to curriculum, standards, grading, teaching practices,\u201d said Kristin Davison, a top strategist for Youngkin\u2019s gubernatorial campaign. \u201cThat awoke a number of parents across the political spectrum to demand more out of their schools.\u201d
As governor, Youngkin issued a day one executive order prohibiting the teaching of \u201cinherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory\u201d from Virginia classrooms and overhauled policies related to transgender students in public schools. He also set up a tip line for parents to report teachers who raise \u201cdivisive\u201d topics in the classroom, thought it has since been shut down.
With parents and teachers continuing to grapple with the repercussions of the pandemic on students \u2013 the learning loss and mental health challenges \u2013 Davison believes the education agenda championed by Republican politicians like Youngkin, who has also been raised as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, will only become more resonant with voters.
Since Youngkin\u2019s election, the conservative campaign to expand parental control over public education has moved from contentious school board meetings to state capitols and now Congress. Over the last two years, Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted or are considering a dizzying array of new proposals limiting the instruction of what proponents deem \u201cdivisive concepts\u201d in public schools.
And this week House Republicans pressed ahead with their \u201cParents Bill of Rights\u201d, a centerpiece of their midterm election campaign and a top priority for the speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
The measure outlines five pillars that Republicans say will guarantee a parent\u2019s right to scrutinize library books and classroom curricula and review school budgets, among other aspects. It would also require parents\u2019 consent before a student is allowed to change their gender designation, pronouns or name, a provision that Democrats warned would force schools to out LGBTQ+ students to their families that may not be accepting of their identity.
\u201cParents across this country have overwhelmingly spoken out that they have had enough,\u201d said Julia Letlow, the Republican congresswoman of Louisiana who sponsored the bill. \u201cThey want a seat at the table because at the end of the day, these are our children, not the government\u2019s.\u201d
\u2018It\u2019s just terrible what they\u2019re doing\u2019
Democrats say the focus on divisive cultural issues distracts from the real challenges facing American students and public education \u2013 and suspect voters will punish Republicans for it.
They point to the midterms results and polling as evidence that voters are more concerned about school funding, teacher shortages, student mental health and campus safety than they are about the instruction of critical race theory, an academic framework for examining systemic racism in American institutions.
A pre-election memo by the Republican National Committee last year seemed to recognize that risk and last year advised candidates to center their general election pitch on \u201cparental rights and quality education\u201d, as opposed to cultural attacks.
And though DeSantis soared to re-election last year in Florida, several other GOP candidates for governor who pushed a socially conservative agenda lost, including in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. House Republicans failed to secure the dominating majority they predicted, while many of the \u201cparents\u2019 rights\u201d activists who ran for seats on their local school board came up short, even though conservative groups poured millions of dollars into winning the once-sleepy contests.
\u201cUnless we say stupid things,\u201d Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said, a reference to the debate-stage blunder by the party\u2019s nominee for Virginia governor that many believe contributed to Youngkin\u2019s victory, \u201cour proactive agenda of quality education, well-paid teachers, mental health and job skills beats their agenda of transgender, CRT every single time.\u201d
Democrats believe they can offer a strong contrast. They are promoting an education agenda focused on boosting federal funding for public schools and raising teachers\u2019 pay while expanding pre-K programs and increasing college affordability, plans that face strong Republican resistance.
In the president\u2019s State of the Union address, Joe Biden, who is expected to run for re-election, proposed two years of tuition-free community college as a way to expand access to \u201cthe best career training in America\u201d. He also used his executive authority to forgive more than $400bn in student-loan debt, an action that enraged Republicans and some Democrats and which the supreme court appears poised to invalidate.
In a recent interview, Biden criticized the flurry of legislation targeting transgender students and athletes and singled out new laws in Florida as particularly problematic.
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just terrible what they\u2019re doing.\u201d
\u2018Peddling hysteria\u2019
For many of the teachers, parents and students caught up in the political battle of so-called parents\u2019 rights, the impact has been disorienting and demoralizing.
Public school teachers, already grappling with the impacts of the pandemic on their students\u2019 mental health and academic achievement, are now trying to navigate a thicket of new restrictions that critics say are having a chilling effect on what they can discuss in the classroom.
Educators and librarians have come under attack, inundated with conspiracy-fueled accusations that they are \u201cgrooming\u201d students by offering books that address LGBTQ+ issues. Some have quit or retired early, exacerbating, some say, the nation\u2019s teacher shortage.
A survey by the Pew Research Center found that parents divided sharply along partisan lines when asked how their school-age children should be taught about gender identity, the legacy of slavery and whether they had enough influence over school curriculum. But some polls have found broader support for laws restricting certain instruction on gender and sexuality in elementary grades.
There are areas of consensus. In general, Americans strongly oppose book bans and believe students should be taught both \u201cthe good and bad\u201d aspects of American history. And though public attitudes on transgender rights are complex and still being shaped, especially on issues involving trans youth, Americans remain widely supportive of laws that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.
But as the debate over parental rights in education rages, LGBTQ+ students, and especially trans youth, say the efforts to place aggressive controls on their identities\u2002is harming their mental health, while LGBTQ+ parents in states like Florida reporting that they have considered moving away to protect their families.
\u201cThe politicians and rightwing zealots behind this anti-LGBTQ+ movement are peddling hysteria,\u201d said Brandon Wolf of the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Florida, adding: \u201cWhile it\u2019s a marketing ploy for those folks, it has had real impacts on people across the state.\u201d
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, denounced Republicans\u2019 attacks on public education as a \u201cdivisive\u201d political strategy. While it may serve Republicans on the campaign trail, she said, it was doing a \u201cdisservice\u201d in the classroom, where teachers must prepare students for a world that is socially, culturally and technologically different than the one into which their parents graduated.
\u201cI don\u2019t think it has anything to do with parental rights or education,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a fear of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n