Parents concerned about education are not terrorists

When it comes to educating our children, parents should be at the absolute center of that conversation. After all, nobody should be more invested in ensuring kids get a quality education than their parents.

Missouri Congressman Sam Graves

That’s why our schools are largely funded at the local level, with some input from the state. It’s the locally elected school boards, consisting of parents and grandparents, who are tasked with overseeing the education of our children, not far away politicians. This holds our schools accountable to those who care about them the most – parents.

There are plenty of issues that parents are concerned about today whether it’s Critical Race Theory, masking in schools, or any other number of controversial topics. As a parent, if the school your child attends does something you don’t agree with, you have the right to speak out about it and let the school board know how you feel. They work for you, just like I do.

Unfortunately, the federal government has decided that dissent isn’t okay at your local school board meeting. Suddenly, concerned parents should now be labeled as “domestic terrorists” according to a national school organization who has called on the Department of Justice and the FBI to crack down on parents. I’ve seen a lot of crazy proposals over the last couple months, but I sure didn’t expect to have “go after PTA members for being terrorists” on my government overreach bingo board.

I’m not saying there haven’t been some school board meetings where folks have lost their cool and gone too far. We’re living in tense and frustrating times and the temperature is turned up, but every one of those cases has been handled by local law enforcement and that’s the way it should be. We don’t need the federal government creeping even further into our education system, certainly not in an attempt to bully parents into silence.

Public education is vital to North Missouri, and I have always fully supported it. However, ensuring that parents continue to have a strong voice is the only way it will survive and thrive. We should be treating parents as the number one stakeholder in our children’s education, not as “domestic terrorists.”

–Congressman Sam Graves, 6th Congressional District Missouri