Voters will return to the polls next November, with the midterm elections being among the most highly anticipated in recent years. Much of that enthusiasm is being driven by parents.
Although midterms traditionally experience lower turnout, many Americans now have renewed perspectives on the importance of casting their ballots. Some believe the surprise victory of Republican Glen Youngkin over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial election is a sign of things to come in the 2022 midterms. Just a day after Youngkin won, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pledged to “soon unroll a parents’ bill of rights,” adding at a news conference that the GOP “will be the party of education.”
“Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia was led by frustrated parents who were fed up with an education system that neglected the needs of their children,” McCarthy says. “It is just one snapshot of the same frustration that has been and continues to be felt by millions of families nationwide.”
According to McCarthy, parents are facing school board officials who are “more interested in appeasing liberal activists and teachers’ unions than they are in bettering the educational experience of students.”
“In my home state of California, there has been a recent push to deemphasize calculus and include more social justice in math,” he said. “Parents across the country have voiced concerns about inappropriate literature on school bookshelves. Unexpected threats of school closures continue to loom, and this is all happening in the midst of a push to decrease parental involvement in education.
“This is wrong — that is why House Republicans will ensure protecting parents’ involvement in education will be a critical component of our 2022 platform.”
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Opposition to critical race theory is a particular point of concern for parents across the country, although the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, denies that CRT is even taught in elementary schools. Some educators are teaching other educators how to “back-door” it into the classrooms, and a teacher in Iowa posted a video teaching other educators how to circumvent the ban on teaching CRT in her state.
–Metro Voice Staff
