On March 24, Thefederalist.com reported on an undercover audio tape published by the parents’ rights group Freedom Families United, which reveals school board members being trained to disregard parents’ wishes if they oppose woke curricula.

New Mexico School Board Association (NMSBA) trainer Andrew Sanchez can be heard telling the state’s school board members that “parents do not have a fundamental right to tell you how public school teaches their child.” He further claims: “Parental rights end when you decide to send your kids to public school. What you teach this generation that will soon be voting [is] going to be instrumental to [our] future as a democracy and as society goes forward.”

In the audio, Sanchez warns school board members that they are “potential targets with regard to any understandings of parental rights and/or subjects of curriculum.” The message here may be that when parents object to the teaching of CRT or the availability of obscene library books, school board members, as holders of the public school’s purse strings, should be prepared to ignore parents and ensure that those materials remain in place and fully funded.

Sanchez further cautions school board members that parents are likely to invoke their constitutional right of freedom of religion, but contends that parents give up some of their constitutional rights when they send their children to public schools. He adds: “So, you’re going to see a lot more based on that religious freedom type argument.”

Many parents disagree with Sanchez, noting that he is an example of an unelected state bureaucrat instructing elected school board members on what to do and how to think. One parent suggested posting a billboard with Sanchez’s picture and the quote: “Parents have no rights in public schools.” Another stated the obvious: “None of this would be an issue if [schools] only taught basic subjects rather than indoctrinating [with] political beliefs.”

The Federalist opined that Sanchez “mocked parents concerned about excessive wokeness in the classroom and claimed teachers in Florida ‘don’t even teach the Civil War anymore.’” To the contrary, “a quick examination of Florida’s K-12 standards, however, shows educators are required to teach their students about the Civil War and Reconstruction.”

While Sanchez affirmed that teachers in New Mexico “will talk about Black Lives Matter” because “they have to,” he denied that schools in the state are teaching CRT.

Neither The Federalist nor Freedom Families United disclosed how the leaked audio presentation was obtained.

Freedom Families United joins the parents’ rights army

One of many grassroots organizations springing up around the country in defense of parental rights, Freedom Families United was founded by Casey Petersen, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, and his wife, Micayle. The Petersens reside in New Mexico and are parents of two. After his stint in the army, Casey earned a master’s degree in engineering.

The website explains that the Petersens were prompted to start the group after Casey encountered CRT in his job at Sandia National Laboratories in 2020, which he found both racist and offensive. He blew the whistle on what was taking place there yet managed to keep his job until he refused to disclose his Covid-19 vaccination status in February 2022.

Petersen says he felt “called upon” to found Freedom Families United in response to the proliferation of CRT and “the corruption and war on the family” within our schools. The group encourages parents and concerned citizens to join them in their fight, and they provide an email address on their website specifically for tips about woke curricula and other objectionable programs and activities. Senders may submit tips anonymously if they choose.

Hot topic in 2024

Events are shaping up to keep education at the forefront politically in 2024, with parental rights likely to be key. Conservative America Today reports that “recent events at the local, state, and federal level show that the ability of parents to monitor the curriculum of their children is growing in importance.” The furor has only intensified as efforts by teachers and school administrators to hide woke activities and deny parents their right to oversee what their children are learning increasingly come to light.

On March 24, Bethany Mandel, conservative writer and co-author of Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation, which Education Reporter reviewed in April, posted on Twitter that her local school district “in Montgomery County, Maryland (@MCPS) will not allow parents to opt-out of any LGBTQ+ content they want to throw at your kids. Nor will they even tell you what the content is.... They think they own your children.”

Mandel wrote an article on the subject in the New York Post, citing the inability of parents to opt their children out of objectionable programs and activities, including “books about gender and sexuality” starting in kindergarten. She described an email from the district which stated: “Parents and students may not choose to opt-out of engaging with any instructional materials, other than ‘Family Life and Human Sexuality Unit of Instruction’ which is specifically permitted by Maryland law.... As such, teachers will not send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are read in the future.”

Most parents realize the Maryland district is hardly the only one adopting and enforcing such policies.

Parents Bill of Rights

On Friday, March 24, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would amend the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require schools to be more transparent regarding curricula, library books, and transgender-related activities. The vote was largely along party lines, with 213 Republicans voting for passage and 208 Democrats voting against the bill. Five Republicans joined the Democrats in voting NO.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the bill at the federal level in November 2021 in conjunction with similar state legislation introduced in Missouri by the Show-Me Institute. Despite a storm of criticism from the Left, Hawley’s bill advanced through the U.S. House and passed 16 months later.

In addition to more transparency surrounding curricula, the bill requires federally funded elementary and middle schools to obtain parental consent in order to change “a minor child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form; or allowing a child to change the child’s sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.” It reaffirms parents’ right to address their local school boards, and to be informed about violent activity occurring at their child’s school.

The fact that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed that the bill will never see the light of day in the U.S. Senate should add fuel to 2024 election campaign fires. Schumer told his allies at CNN that the legislation is “Orwellian to the core” and blamed its passage on “hard right MAGA ideologues.” Multiple Democrat representatives bandied about the familiar diatribe against “book banning” to sympathetic mainstream media pundits.

But in the wake of the bill’s passage, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asserted: “Parents are the primary stakeholders in their child’s education, and House Republicans are working to protect their right to know what is going on inside their child’s classroom.... Children belong to their parents; they are not wards of government schools.”

Many parents agree, and consider the bill to be nothing more than common sense. As author Mandel pointed out in her NY Post article: “Just imagine progressive backlash if red states started including biblical values and literacy into curriculum and wouldn’t allow an opt-out or notification. Progressives want to proselytize their own religion, and anyone who dares object is labeled fascist and a bigot.”

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