Local parents push back against the Woke public school machine

Former teacher Larry Sand recalls 2021 as the “Year of the Parent,” citing parents who get involved in their local school boards and pro-family organizations, leave failing public schools for more competitive options, and file lawsuits when needed to protect students from indoctrination. Though labeled a “political tactic” in the Washington Post, Sand explains that parental choice is an essential right to ensure student safety. To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.

The “Democracy Dies in Darkness” crowd over at the Washington Post, has weighed in on the culture war. In “Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t,” the authors blame Republicans for fomenting parent unrest, insisting that the GOPers are paranoid, involved in voter suppression, and trying to stoke “White racial grievance.” In a rant that would make George Orwell’s head spin, the authors trash school choice, falsely claim CRT is not taught in public schools, and maintain that the “sudden push for parental rights” is a “political tactic.”

Parents are not buying what the NSBA, Garland, WaPo, et al. are selling, however. The National Center for Education Statistics recently published K-12 enrollment data for the 2020–21 school year, and it showed a 3% drop – about 1.5 million kids from the 51 million enrolled in the previous year. The largest segment of the leavers and no-shows were kindergarteners and pre-k kids, whose enrollment dropped by 13% last year. Additionally, homeschooling has been booming. The Census Bureau reports that between 2012 and 2020, the number of homeschooling families remained steady at around 3.3%. But by May 2020, about 5.4% of U.S. households with school-aged children reported they were homeschooling. And by October 2020, the number jumped to 11.1%. Granted many of the exiting kids have departed due to excessive Covid mandates, but to be sure, many have been pulled in response to their local school’s radical bent.

Writing about the woke revolution in Commentary, Bari Weiss asserts, “If cowardice is the thing that has allowed for all of this, the force that stops this cultural revolution can also be summed up by one word: courage. And courage often comes from people you would not expect.”

This article originally appeared in the California Policy Center. Read the whole thing here.

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