(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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‘Us vs Them’: A Toxic Vision of Parent Engagement [1]
['Tim Walker']
Date: 2023-03
From June 2021 through July 2022, book bans were imposed in 138 school districts in 32 states, affecting nearly 4 million students in more than 5,000 schools. That staggering number has likely increased in the past seven months, and it will only get worse if Congress soon decides to join forces with book ban proponents.
That could happen with passage of a bill that would not only accelerate censorship in schools, but also strip educator autonomy in curriculum decisions and impose a federal mandate that would severely weaken community voices in school decisions.
The bill’s supporters call it a “parents bill of rights,” another example of the deceptive but familiar ploy of using popular, digestible labels to disguise unpopular and destructive schemes. This bill, introduced in January, is now being debated in the House of Representatives and will have a floor vote later this week.
The “Parents Bill of Rights Act” (HR 5) contains a list of provisions already ensured by local and state law, including, but not limited to, a parent’s right to view a school’s budget or speak at a public school board meeting.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hinted at the bill's more troubling provisions in his first speech to the chamber as Speaker of the House in January. McCarthy vowed to put an end to “woke indoctrination in schools,” a clear signal that right-wing lawmakers in Washington supported the onerous “gag orders” and book bans their counterparts at the state level are inflicting on educators.
That’s an agenda that is intended to drive a wedge between parents and their children’s school, not foster constructive and inclusive parent engagement, said NEA President Becky Pringle.
Instead of ensuring all students, no matter their race or background, have the chance to succeed, Pringle said, “McCarthy would rather seek to stoke racial and social division and distract us from what will really help our students thrive: an inspiring, inclusive, and age-appropriate curriculum that prepares each and every one of them for their future.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/us-vs-them-toxic-vision-parent-engagement
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