Conservative media outlets have characterized 2021 as "the year of the parent," which begs the question of whether 2022 will continue in the same vein. Early indications are that concerned parents are not going anywhere and are more likely to increase in number and gather momentum.

In Loudoun County, Virginia, the veritable ground zero for parental outrage and pushback, concerned parents kicked off 2022 by filing a lawsuit against their school board "for violating open meeting laws." The Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC), the legal arm of The Family Foundation, is representing these parents, charging the Loudoun County Superintendent and School Board with violating their rights by keeping them "from fully participating in publicly held meetings."

To be sure, 2021 was a record year for parental discontent, with the single greatest contributing factor being the COVID-19 lockdowns that kept school children at home and gave parents a bird's eye view of what they were actually learning and not learning– comprehensive sex education (CSE), Critical Race Theory (CRT), socio-emotional learning (SEL), gender identity politics, and a smattering of flawed academics. Add to all this the forced masking and other strict protocols when students were actually permitted back into the classroom, and the recipe for parental frustration was complete.

As the Washington Examiner opined on January 3: "[With] the inclusion of critical race theory and gender ideology in school curricula, the fight over mask mandates, and the Loudoun County public school rape case, a wide breadth of issues pertaining to education motivated a new kind of voter." The Examiner was referring to the Virginia election outcome in particular, but similar issues shook local politics and motivated parents across the country.

School boards flipped in many areas

One result of parents taking a more active role in their children's education was the turnover in local school board members last fall. The Washington Examiner reported in November that "in down-ballot races nationwide, conservative candidates took incumbent liberal school board members out of office."

The Examiner cited three school board races in diverse areas of the country as examples; one in Douglas County, Colorado just south of Denver; one in Southlake, Texas in suburban Dallas, and another in Des Moines, Iowa. Voters flipped the Douglas County, Colorado School Board "from a 7-0 teacher-friendly board to one controlled 4-3 by conservative-backed candidates." In Des Moines, three candidates supported by the conservative group "1776 Action," won their races, and Southlake, Texas, school board candidate Andrew Yeager, who ran as an opponent to the district's diversity plan, won a landslide victory. Observers noted that Yeager's victory tipped the scales against the plan, giving board members who already opposed it a majority.

Laura Zorc, executive director of the parent organization Building Education for Students Together, which trains parents to successfully run a school board race, told the Washington Examiner: "In 2021, parents have been on the front lines battling to protect the future of America. It's the year parents have woken up and thrown down the gauntlet." (See Education Reporter, December 2021 for an article on Zorc's organization.) She believes parents will stay the course in 2022.

White House implicated in NSBA letter

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is doing his part to stoke the fires of parental disaffection. As if the uproar last fall over the National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter comparing parents to domestic terrorists wasn't enough, new evidence suggests that the request for the letter originated in Cardona's office. Emails obtained through a FOIA request by the parents' rights group Parents Defending Education show that the secretary personally asked the NSBA to draft the letter, which brings the request and resulting DOJ action full circle.

The Washington Examiner reported on January 11 that the emails reveal "an exchange between NSBA board member Marnie Maldonado and NSBA Secretary-Treasurer Kristi Swett discussing the letter, which was written, Swett said, in response to 'a request by Secretary Cardona.'"

On January 13, Fox News reported that forty-one Republican lawmakers signed a letter to President Biden demanding Cardona's resignation, a copy of which was obtained by the network. Fox quoted the lawmakers as writing: "In the aftermath of [the NSBA] letter and the fierce blowback it caused, Secretary Cardona rewarded Viola Garcia, the NSBA President and co-signer of the letter, with an appointment to the National Assessment Governing Board."

The letter charged that anyone who "believes an individual that equates parents voicing their concerns at school board meetings to domestic terrorists ... is someone unbecoming of a role in an administration which has pledged to foster a path forward to unify and heal our country."

The lawmakers concluded that [Biden's] "pledge to help bring unity will ring even more hollow if Secretary Cardona continues in his current position. As such, in order to uphold your promise to help bring unity and healing to a divided nation, you must fire Secretary Cardona effective immediately."

Among the more high-profile Republican letter signers were Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Greg Murphy of North Carolina, and Ronny Jackson of Texas.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education reportedly denied that Cardona solicited the NSBA letter despite evidence confirming that he did.

Here they go again—teachers bail on students

In cities like San Francisco and Oakland, California, Chicago, Illinois and Atlanta, Georgia, teachers' unions are balking at in-person classes and demanding still more COVID-19 protections.

In Chicago, the teachers' union voted to cancel classes in the new semester in favor of remote learning after a surge in COVID-19 omicron variant cases hit the windy city. After-school programs and athletics are also canceled. A union spokesperson said teachers "would only return once the school district took measures to make them feel safe and the number of COVID cases substantially subsides."

P.J. Media.com reported on January 2nd that "more than 2,000 schools in the most liberal locales, bullied by corrupt teachers' unions—caved to anti-science hysteria and locked their doors this week." The article cited a Michigan professor "who followed the data and came to a straightforward conclusion: There is no evidence that shutting down schools the last two years limited the spread of COVID-19."

In Arizona, a new school choice program is funding tuition for eligible students whose public schools are using the omicron variant as an excuse to close. The Daily Caller reported on January 4 that the "Open for Learning Recovery Benefit Program" will award parents up to $7,000 for tuition, transportation, and online tutoring "to help cater to students who fail to perform in virtual learning environments." Eligible parents can take advantage of the program even "if a school closes for only one day." A grassroots teachers' union operating in Arizona, the National Educators United, called for a minimum "two-week pause" on classroom learning beginning January, 3.

School choice advocate Corey DeAngelis called the Arizona choice program "a step in the right direction toward freeing families from the clutches of the teachers' unions once and for all."

Interestingly, blue state governors such as California's Gavin Newsom and blue city mayors including Chicago's Lori Lightfoot, are bucking their teachers' union supporters and trying to keep the schools open. Even the state government in Massachusetts made noises against closing the schools. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall; parents are weary of the teachers' unions and the disruption and harm closed schools are doing to their children and their lives, and they will likely show their anger at the ballot box in 2022.

TheBlaze.com, 12-31-21

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