Parents in Isle of Wight County, Va., recently came into a lot more power.
Emboldened by a new conservative majority, the county鈥檚 school board voted 3-2 this month to enact two policies鈥攐ne that bans sexually explicit materials in K-8 instruction and another that gives parents of high school students the chance to inspect and opt their children out of learning materials and curriculum that contain sexually explicit themes.
鈥淧arents are the basic educators of their children, particularly with their moral upbringing and their beliefs,鈥� said John Collick, chair of the Isle of Wight board and one of the policies鈥� supporters. 鈥淭he schools are there to add value to that education that the parents have already started.鈥�
Isle of Wight is one example of a school district experiencing the impact of a growing parents鈥� rights movement.
Parents鈥� rights have become a staple of conservative politicians鈥� education agendas in recent years, especially following schools鈥� pandemic shutdowns. In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin capitalized on parent frustration with schools in 2021 to become the state鈥檚 first Republican governor in more than a decade. A national parents鈥� bill of rights is a priority for members of the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The movement has led to parents鈥� rights policies passing at the district and state levels around the country, albeit some of them policies that largely restate rights parents already have to voice their opinions at school board meetings and transparency requirements for public school districts, experts say.
But the movement has also been a cause for concern for some educators and advocates for equity in schools, who worry the policies give conservative and often white parents an outsize voice and deepen divides between public schools and those they serve.
While parents鈥� efforts to force such changes in their local schools have gained momentum and attention in recent years, they鈥檙e the latest example of a decades-old tradition of parent organizing. And their movement鈥檚 legal impact is still unclear, as it鈥檚 too new for key questions related to such parents鈥� rights policies to have come before鈥攁nd be settled by鈥攖he courts.
What are parents鈥� rights?
The term 鈥減arents鈥� rights鈥� has been thrown around often in legislative debates and campaign rallies over the past two years. Some have used it to bolster arguments for state restrictions on school curricula and materials related to racism, sexuality, and gender identity. Others have used it to advocate for systemic changes like expanding school choice through measures such as private school vouchers.
As of last June, 84 bills filed in 26 states sought to expand parents鈥� rights in schools, according to FutureEd, an education policy think tank affiliated with Georgetown University鈥檚 McCourt School of Public Policy. The proposals are often general in nature, arguing that parents should have the right to review curriculum, speak at school board meetings, know how school budgets are being spent, protect their children鈥檚 privacy, and know what measures schools are taking to keep students safe, all of which parents are already legally able to do.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee, said those five tenets will be included in a federal parents鈥� bill of rights that GOP House members plan to reintroduce this spring.
But the concept of parents鈥� rights isn鈥檛 new. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that parents have a voice in their child鈥檚 education in a handful of court cases, such as the 1925 Pierce v. Society of Sisters decision, in which the court stated that parents have the right 鈥渢o direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.鈥�
鈥淭here was a general sense that parents have rights to make decisions for their kids, including in education,鈥� said Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. 鈥淏ut it was typically just thought of as a thing that you have.鈥�
The parents鈥� rights policies being considered now seek to enshrine those rights in law or policies, McCluskey said.
How the parents鈥� rights movement came to be
The recent parents鈥� rights movement marks one moment in a long history of parent advocacy and organizing, FutureEd Director Thomas Toch said.
Traditionally, parents would engage with schools through participating in parent-teacher associations and fundraising, chaperoning field trips, and planning school events. Then the civil rights movement came, and parents of color started pushing for systemic changes in schools through school boards and eventually through court cases like Brown v. Board of Education, leading to racial integration in schools.
Black parents during the civil rights era were the first to make parent organizing political out of the need for better education for their children, Toch said. Decades later, parents of color in many communities have once again become well organized as they push for more experienced and effective teachers, more school funding, more public school options, and higher quality education materials.
But the pandemic brought a new group of conservative, and often white, parents into the fray, Toch said. They feel schools overstepped their bounds with COVID-19 mitigation measures like masks and by addressing race and sexuality in instruction.
鈥淭hese sorts of flashpoints have emerged throughout history,鈥� Toch said. 鈥淏ut today we see, in part because of the power of social media and the reach of the internet, a much more fast-moving conservative parental backlash to what they see as inappropriate government and curriculum initiatives.鈥�
That rapid growth is what has kept the parents鈥� rights movement at the center of media attention. Well known groups like Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education have created political action committees to help conservative school board members get elected. They鈥檝e also lobbied for state laws banning books with content about race, gender, and sexuality, and pushed for more oversight of what is being taught in schools.
鈥淸Parents] feel trapped in the indoctrination of their children in public schools,鈥� said Suzanne Gallagher, executive director of the Oregon-based group Parents鈥� Rights in Education.
Gallagher doesn鈥檛 see state-level parents鈥� bill of rights laws as the end of the road. She鈥檇 like to see more parents run for and be elected to school boards to prevent or change policies that don鈥檛 align with their values.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e putting pressure at that level we will begin to raise candidates who can then go to state legislatures and start changing things,鈥� Gallagher said. 鈥淲e need to make this the national crisis that it is.鈥�
What the push for parents鈥� rights means for schools, practically
It would take parents bringing the issue to courts to understand the legal impact of recent parents鈥� rights policies on schools, McCluskey said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that we have enough track record of these parents鈥� rights bills being implemented for a long time that we can say how they work out,鈥� he said.
But the policies are likely to have an impact on how school and district leaders approach transparency surrounding curriculum and learning materials, McCluskey said.
Such a situation has played out in Ocean City, N.J., where district leaders faced parent outrage over new state sex education standards that included instruction about gender identity and sexuality.
Over 100 people participated in a protest against the standards last September in Ocean City, expressing concerns that they would lead to 鈥渋ndoctrination鈥� and 鈥済rooming鈥� in schools, The protest led the local city council to adopt a parents鈥� bill of rights policy that gives parents the power to review curriculum and learning materials used in classrooms and opt their kids out of curriculum 鈥渢hat the parent believes is in conflict with [their] conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs.鈥�
The city council has no governing control over the school district in Ocean City, so the parents鈥� bill of rights doesn鈥檛 change what the district can do legally, Superintendent Matthew Friedman said. But the situation led the Ocean City district to be 鈥渁s transparent as possible鈥� about the standards and lessons being taught in schools, he said. The district held parent academies where district leaders showed parents the state standards, how they鈥檝e changed over the years, clips of videos that will be shown in classes, and concrete examples of lesson plans.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 take [the parents鈥� bill of rights] as a negative,鈥� Friedman said. 鈥淚鈥檓 a huge proponent of the partnership between our district and parents and guardians because that is a recipe for success. So having a piece of paper to amplify or remind people of their rights, that鈥檚 great.鈥�
The district鈥檚 school board doesn鈥檛 plan to adopt its own parents鈥� bill of rights, however, as a commitment to parents鈥� rights is already interwoven into district policies and practices, Friedman said.
Parents鈥� rights connect to a push for school choice
School choice initiatives鈥�like new laws in Iowa and Utah establishing voucher programs that let parents use public dollars to pay for private school tuition鈥攈ave risen in tandem with the push for parents鈥� rights.
Often, the choice bills are tied to the concept of parents鈥� rights, with politicians arguing that parents should have a right to choose other schools if they鈥檙e concerned about what is being taught in their local public schools and that the government should support that move.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen an intensification of efforts to legislate choice programs that use public monies for private schooling in recent years because of the frustration that many parents experienced during the pandemic with traditional schools having to go virtual,鈥� Toch said. 鈥淚 think advocates of vouchers, tax credits, and education savings accounts have thought to tap into that disaffection.鈥�
Because parents鈥� rights policies call for more transparency, they鈥檙e likely to lead to more support for school choice, said McCluskey, who supports the expansion of school choice.
鈥淚f parents have more information and they have the ability to choose among schools, that gives them more to work with to decide what school is the best fit for their children,鈥� he said.
Can parents鈥� rights benefit everyone?
While conservative activists and politicians have led the recent push for parents鈥� rights laws and policies, the policies themselves are written to apply to all parents.
鈥淧roviding parents with insights into what their schools are teaching their children and how and how well is reasonable,鈥� Toch said. 鈥淪mart school administrators have long brought parents into decision-making via curriculum committees and other ways of encouraging them to share their perspectives and in other ways to give them a voice.鈥�
But in many cases, parents鈥� rights advocates have spread misinformation about what鈥檚 happening in schools, Toch said, such as a hoax that claimed schools were providing litter boxes to students who identify as furries and claims that schools were teaching critical race theory. Those instances don鈥檛 benefit schools, he said.
The conversations surrounding parents鈥� rights also often fail to include voices from people of color, said Lakisha Young, executive director of The Oakland REACH, a parent support and organizing group for Black and brown families in Oakland, Calif. And recent media attention to the conservative parents鈥� rights has pushed the voices of parents of color into the background, she said.
Young doesn鈥檛 see parents鈥� rights policies helping her organization or others like it.
鈥淚 think all of these things are philosophical,鈥� Young said. 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e symbolic. Somebody is going to have to take [it] and make it mean something.鈥�
The Oakland REACH has focused its efforts on building solutions for families as their children struggle with a lack of resources and support for basics like reading and math. Young hasn鈥檛 been bothered by the conservative parents鈥� rights movement, as she sees her fight for better schools for students of color as completely separate.
鈥淥ur communities are in perpetual fight mode and that鈥檚 the burden,鈥� Young said. 鈥淎nytime these families want to drop that mantle, they can and their kids will be fine. They may not get everything they want. They may be upset or whatever, but their kids are going to be able to read and do math.鈥�
Back in Isle of Wight in Virginia, Collick doesn鈥檛 expect much to change after the school board passed its policies restricting sexually explicit material. The chairman doesn鈥檛 believe there was sexually explicit material in the district to begin with, but sees the policies as a way to prevent students from being exposed to such material in the future.
The school board is preparing to consider another policy next month that would provide a framework for how teachers can discuss race and racism and specifically ban critical race theory. The policy would direct teachers to avoid sharing their political views in the classroom, which Collick believes will 鈥渃reate better critical thinkers.鈥�
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want anyone to be taught that our government is inherently racist,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to make sure that everybody understands that they are of value to our society no matter what their race, ethnicity, sex, or anything else is.鈥�
Collick believes the policy changes will ultimately benefit parents.
鈥淕ov. Glenn Youngkin has made it clear the parents have the ultimate right to decide how their children are educated,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 not going to back off on that and neither are we.鈥�
