Parents are seeking true academic transparency and a healthy partnership with their children’s schools. Trust between parents and school districts is waning, and if residentially-assigned schools want to attract and retain families, they must be willing to provide information to parents.
Everyone loves the party game “Two Truths and a Lie.” Can you identify which of the three following statements about transparency in schools is a lie?
A. Schools will inform parents when their child is interested in identifying as a different gender.
B. Parents should be informed about surveys that may involve intrusive subjects and given the ability to opt out.
C. School systems are facing self-inflicted financial challenges.
Let’s take these statements one at a time:
A. LIE! Gender Support Plans have been created in thousands of school districts across the country. If students express gender confusion or requests to be referred to by another name or pronoun, the teacher is to hide this information from parents. Staff members exclude parents while creating a social transition plan with the student. School staff even lead children down the path of a future of medical transition.
B. TRUTH! According to the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, parents have the right to be informed when their children will be surveyed at school. Both government agencies and private entities are known to conduct surveys that may require public school students to answer intrusive questions. Students in Minnesota were asked questions regarding drug use, underage alcohol use, sexual partners, pregnancy, and stealing. Many adolescents will not have experienced these things and the survey could normalize unhealthy behavior, which could be confusing and destabilizing for participating students. Parents must be informed that they have the legal right to opt out of the intrusive surveys entirely.
C. TRUTH! Unbeknown to their communities, many school systems will soon be facing self-inflicted financial woes. Temporary federal COVID relief funding will soon be ending and with it the $190 billion budget cushion. In the past few years, teachers unions have negotiated expensive collective agreements and school systems have used the temporary federal funding to pay for additional permanent staff. While schools disingenuously blame educational freedom opportunities such as “vouchers” for school districts’ budget woes, the same issues have arisen in districts without school choice programs.
Bottom Line:
Implementing policies that guarantee academic and budget transparency, inform parents about their federal rights, and prevent schools from keeping secrets will help rebuild trust. Parents have the right to know what their children are learning, and schools have the responsibility to provide that information. States should implement policies that restore parental trust in schools and require full transparency.
To learn more about these important issues, please see this month’s Policy Focus.