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Will begin the main subject. Now more than ever, we need to protect the voice of parents in the classroom.
I think I’m like many parents in southern Indiana and across the country who feel anxious as soon as they send their kids off to school.
It wasn’t always like this. But as a mother of three school-age children, I’ve experienced it myself over the years. The conversation around education, especially the voice of parents advocating for their children, is evolving.
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These days, it feels like the lines of communication between home and school, where children spend most of their day, are strained or even broken.
Rep. Erin Houchin has proposed a “parental bill of rights” to protect schoolchildren. (image, file)
As living rooms become classrooms during the pandemic, some changes have become painfully clear to parents. Parents soon began to understand exactly what their children’s days were like.
Many parents told me they were surprised and disappointed to learn about their child’s educational experience. And when parents voiced these concerns at school board meetings, they were often silenced or dismissed.
As I said on the floor of the House, sending your child to public school does not suddenly mean that you lose your parental rights. When I worked in child welfare, I helped care for children in foster care facilities. I saw firsthand how the process works.
When foster parents take care of children under state protection, they cannot give the child a haircut without the permission of the biological parents. Why shouldn’t the same rules apply to student health in the classroom?
Here in southern Indiana, we are lucky. Most of our school districts are going above and beyond to communicate with parents, inform them about their children’s education, and empower them. Sadly, this is not a common experience across our country.
In fact, one Virginia father should have learned from his child, not the school, that his daughter was assaulted in a high school bathroom.
Just last month, a New Jersey judge blocked several school districts from notifying parents of their children’s gender identity changes.
Stories like this must not become the new normal.
That’s why House Republicans have pledged to address this issue and pushed for legislation that led to HR 5, the Parents’ Bill of Rights. We listened to the pleas of parents across the country and realized that we cannot stand by and watch as parental rights are eroded in public schools. I was proud to be an original champion of HR 5 and supported its swift passage in the House.
This bill reaffirmed the long-standing fundamental relationship between American parents and teachers: that parents have the right to make informed decisions about their children’s education.
As we broadly emphasized during consideration of the bill in the House Education and Labor Committee, the Parental Bill of Rights includes five fundamental principles to ensure: Parents have the right to be heard. Parents have the right to see their school’s budget. Parents have the right to protect their children’s privacy. And that parents have the right to keep their children safe.
Additionally, during the committee process, I added protections to this bill if students are not at grade level reading by the end of third grade, a critical time when children begin to transition. We are happy to add an amendment to require notification to the public. From learning to read to reading to learn. Children’s literacy rates are lagging behind and will improve the more parents support them. But to help, we need to give them information.
Years ago, this type of legislative action was not needed. Unfortunately, in today’s world, this bill is needed because school districts across the country are failing to realize these fundamental principles. America’s education system is failing us.
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This discussion inspired my colleagues and I to continue taking steps to strengthen schools and empower parents. For me, this includes taking action to expand parental options. That’s why I will always be a strong supporter of school choice and education savings accounts that put parents in the driver’s seat.
Parents know what is best for their students. As members of the House Education and Workforce Committee say, it’s time to apply our most basic principle, freedom, to our most basic system, education.
This bill reaffirmed the long-standing fundamental relationship between American parents and teachers: that parents have the right to make informed decisions about their children’s education.
Now, as a committee member, I am seated at the table for parents in the committee room. It is important to protect and restore the original role of parents in their children’s education. Because in most cases, there is no one who is a better advocate for a child than their parents. And I, along with my House Republican colleagues, will not stop until we accomplish this mission.
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Thankfully, we fought for and introduced legislation that would ensure access to information and hold parents, not bureaucrats, responsible for their children’s education, but the fight doesn’t stop there. We will continue to seek out our Senate colleagues and other opportunity partners to restore educational excellence in all of America’s schools.
I will never stop fighting on behalf of my fellow parents because parental rights don’t stop at the classroom door.
