CONSERVATIVES AND REPUBLICANS ARE INCAPABLE OF THINKING IN PRINCIPLES. This “Parents’ Bill of Rights” is little more than window-dressing. If the Education Establishment were like a large oak tree, these Republican bills of parents’ rights are the equivalent of a taking a hedge clipper to the tree’s leaves. Starting next week, The Redneck Intellectual will lay an axe to the root of the Education Establishment. You won’t want to miss it: “Republicans Release ‘Parent Bill Of Rights’ To Back Efforts At Public School Oversight.”
A new bill House Republican leadership is describing as a “parents’ bill of rights” would write into federal education law transparency requirements for curriculum and spending, two annual parent-teacher meetings, and that parents sign consent forms before schools mine their childrens’ private data and administer health procedures.
The proposal unveiled at Wednesday’s Republican Study Committee lunch and released first to The Federalist would also forbid public schools from selling student data. The bill would also forbid third parties that schools contract with from selling that data. It does not prohibit federal agencies from amassing extensive student data profiles that follow them for life, a project long underway.
“This is about empowering parents — giving them the backup they need that when they want to go up against a school board, they’ve got members of Congress behind them,” said Michele Exner, communications director for House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, in a phone interview Wednesday morning.