The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is forcing the Democrats to say the quiet part out loud on their own educational agenda. A GOP bill dubbed the Parents Bill of Rights Act proclaims that parents have the right to control their child’s public school education. Even though the bill passed in the House, a unified Democrat Party declared it toxic.

Why did the GOP feel the need to have a parental bill of rights in education? The frustration that parents feel with their schools has been a long time coming, though it truly can be said to have culminated with the COVID lockdowns. Parents were able to see and hear precisely what their children were learning about, and they were not pleased.

Political indoctrination was rampant in the classrooms. Some examples are the instruction of critical race theory even in elementary schools (which the media are still trying to claim is not happening) and radical gender theory. But these were merely the tip of the iceberg.

Parents, as they do when they see a problem that affects their kids, started digging, and what they found was far worse. They found porn in school libraries; some discovered that schools were hiding children’s gender transitions; and some discovered that teachers were using inappropriate writing prompts. Needless to say, parents were now up in arms.

This ire overturned the Virginia gubernatorial race in favor of Glenn Youngkin. It has inspired parents to utilize their rights at school board meetings and at state legislatures. Now, finally, the ire has reached the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Parents Bill of Rights Act passed with a vote of 213-208. Incredibly, there were some Republicans who voted against this bill.

Some of the rights that are guaranteed in the bill are the following:

• Schools that receive federal funding must publish their curriculum and provide a book/material list for the contents of the school library to parents.

• Schools must inform parents if they are eliminating programs like the talented and gifted program, advanced placement, or dual enrollment classes.

• Schools must inform parents if there is any violent activities at school.

• Schools must provide parents a forum to speak at school board meetings.

• Schools must offer at least two in-person meetings with teachers every year.

• Schools must inform parents if there are any curriculum or state standard changes.

• Parents must be informed of and have access to the school’s report card and an itemized budget list for each year.

• Parents have the right to review professional development materials.

• Parents have the right to know if their child is not meeting grade level expectations.

• Parents must be asked for consent before any medical, psychiatric, or drug use screenings are performed on their child.

• Parents have the right to know if a biological male is competing on the biological females’ school athletic team, or if that male is using the school’s female locker room.

• Parents have “the right to know if a school employee or contractor acts to … change a minor child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name; or … allow a child to change the child’s sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.”

These are all commonsense rights that, frankly, every private-sector school this author worked for adhered to. We had on the school website links to the curriculum maps for each grade and links to the state standards website. Furthermore, professional development material was available if parents were interested. Granted, the private school sector takes seriously the fact that parents and their children are the clients. Parent money directly funds teacher paychecks.

This is largely lost in the public schools. Part of the issue is that public schools are controlled by the teachers unions. These entities long ago abandoned their original purpose of ensuring that teachers get fair pay so that they can better serve the students. Instead, the unions are a powerful arm of the Democrat Party. They don’t care about the teachers or the students; they only care about their dues, power, and furthering their preferred political ideology.

The other aspect of this is that public schools are a service provided by the United States government paid for by taxpayers. Parents are still the clients. However, Democrats wish that were not the case.

It’s no surprise that zero House Democrats voted in support of the Parents Bill of Rights Act. The public education system is an institution that they control. To maintain the power they have over that institution, they belittle this bill as fascist and extreme.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hysterically declared: “This Republican bill is asking the government to force the outing of LGBT people before they are ready. When we talk about progressive values, I can say what my progressive value is, and that is freedom over fascism.”

This bill — empowering parents over the state — is literally the opposite of fascism.

Some Democrats are more honest about why they oppose this bill — because they believe that parents lose all rights once their kids enter a public school classroom. This was iterated back in 2021 by Terry McAuliffe (it cost him the gubernatorial race in Virginia) when he said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

More recently, this sentiment was shared by New Mexico School Boards Association Trainer Andrew Sanchez: “Parents do not have a fundamental right to tell you how public school teaches their child. Parental rights end when you decide to send your kids to public school. What you teach this generation that will soon be voting are going to be instrumental to the future of us as a democracy and as society goes forward.”

Regrettably, the Parents Bill of Rights Act is most likely dead on arrival in the Senate because of that chamber’s Democrat majority. The Democrats advocate for an anti-parent agenda because they want to control the next generation of voters.