 The bill prevents any government institution from infringing on the fundamental rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of a child. It is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children. That's the opening line of Florida's Parents' Bill of Rights, signed into law in June 2021. Similar bills have been proposed in Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, and even at the federal level. Our children do not belong to the government. Patty Sullivan is the state coordinator for Parental Rights Florida, which has pushed for a Parents' Bill of Rights since 2013. We do not co-parent with the government, and these entities seem to think that they are entitled to our children and they are not. State bans on the teaching of critical race theory, which have swept the nation, are also an attempt to limit the discretion that teachers and administrators have over what's taught in school. They have been especially popular with voters. Republican Glenn Yonkin ousted the heavily favored Terry McCullough in the Virginia governor's race after he campaigned against critical race theory in schools, and on his first day in office, he banned it from classrooms via executive order. Four other states have also banned several more are considering similar bills. However, opponents say that curriculum transparency bills are just thinly bailed attempts at chilling teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in schools, as the ACLU recently tweeted. Parents have never had the right to shape their kid's school curriculum, authors of a recent Washington Post op-ed argued. If that's what parents want, they should opt out and send their children to private or religious schools. But why should families who can afford private school be the only ones who have a say in what their children are taught? I'm pretty skeptical of the government deciding what should be taught in any type of school. Cory DeAngelis is the National Director of Research for the American Federation for Children and a senior fellow at Reason Foundation. He says public school parents should also have the right to choose the right academic setting for their kids. The solution is to fund students, not systems, giving families the choice to spend education dollars on the schooling of their choosing instead of the one size fits all approach offered by traditional public schools. These bills are just a form of whack-a-mole where your CRT battles of today were the common core battles of yesterday and it'll be something else going forward because the reality is parents disagree about what kind of education they want their kids to have. Families have different preferences, risk tolerance levels and desires for their kids' education and how they want their kids raised and that's okay and the better solution is the bottom up accountability. Allowing families to vote with their feet obviously they can seek a education provider that aligns with their values. This has become such a hot button issue because the pandemic gave parents direct exposure to exactly what their children were and weren't being taught. Parents are awake now. They have seen the curriculum that's been streamed into their living room as they watch their children do these school assignments. Tina Deskovich is a former Brevard County Florida school board member and co-founder of Moms for Liberty. They now understand school district policies which they had never looked at before. They are understanding the structure and who holds authority and what types of authority within the education system. I think that's vital and it's something that's been lacking for a long time. In contrast to critical race theory bans the Florida Parental Bill of Rights broadly affirms that parents have a right to know what schools are teaching and providing to their children. One of the most controversial aspects of the bill is how it applies to medical and mental health services. It establishes that any medical services provided without parental consent can result in misdemeanor charges. Sullivan says some parents are particularly concerned that schools are counseling their kids on their sexuality and gender without parental consent. The parents of one student in a Tallahassee public school sued after the staff held a meeting without their knowledge to discuss accommodating their 13-year-old shift to a non-binary gender identity. They also noted in a file the students' privacy when speaking to parents had to be considered. School districts are not medical facilities that's a complicated issue and there should be no reason why parents should not be aware of what's going on with their children. It is a complicated issue. Where do the rights of parents end and the privacy rights of teenagers who want to confide in a trusted teacher or counselor begin? It was a topic hotly debated on the floor of the Florida Legislature, preceding the passage of the bill. The bill says that they can be fired for giving the student critical advice during their time of need if that advice includes maybe you should wait to come out to your parents. Some of our young LGBTQ plus kids who are worried that if they talk to a teacher or a counselor about their gender identity or sexual orientation that they're going to be outed to their parents. We have to provide and should provide some confidentiality for those students to be able to reach a for a lifeline with a trusted educator. The law states that they must share all information with a parent. That's the law. You don't think that that's a problem in terms of a teenager having some privacy rights? When they're 18 they gain those privacy rights and even FERPA makes it very clear that it's a parent and child relationship that's dealing with privacy together. So I think that it's very important that we maintain the fact that these parents are entrusting their children to these entities and they are not qualified or equipped to make those decisions. We force families into a one-size-fits-all government-run school system and these bills try to prohibit or encourage certain types of policies in that one-size-fits-all system. The only way to move forward with freedom rather than force is to allow the money to follow the child to wherever they want to get an education that aligns best with their parents' values. The pandemic-related school closures have bolstered the school choice movement with 22 states expanding improving or implementing new school choice programs in 2021. Florida is already far ahead of most states in providing parents with school choice but the Angeles says they should go farther by offering universal vouchers which would truly empower parents and children to opt for any school of their choosing. Funding students directly truly empowers parents when it comes to their kid's education. That is the best way to assert those rights. Teacher juniors have finally overplayed their hand, showed their true colors and awakened a sleeping giant which happens to be parents who want more of a say in their kid's education. At this point the teacher juniors are actively destroying their own empire and it's actually pretty glorious and I'm optimistic going forward because parents have woken up. Parents felt powerless in 2020 and they're going to fight to make sure they never feel powerless ever again going forward.