🇺🇸 Parental Politics

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TRENDING

Left: Free Speech Is Not Just for Conservatives Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic

Left: Will GOP Ever Say 'Enough!' to Trump's Violent Rhetoric? Juan Williams, The Hill

Left: Possible Georgia Indictment Will Be Worse for Trump Dennis Aftergut, MSNBC

Right: The Left’s Woke Colonizers Kaylee McGhee White, Washington Examiner

Right: At 50, Heritage Foundation Confronts the New Right Daniel McCarthy, New York Post

Right: DeSantis Wins Over Pennsylvania Republicans Salena Zito, Washington Examiner

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Trump Pleads Not Guilty, Tornadoes in Forecast Again, The Chicago Mayoral Race

US: Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to 2016 hush-money payments (Fox News)

World: Finland joins NATO in historic shift, Russia threatens 'counter-measures' (Reuters)

Weather: Another round of tornadic activity possible for parts of Midwest, Plains and South (NBC News)

US: Brandon Johnson Pulls Ahead Of Paul Vallas In Chicago Mayor’s Race (Block Club Chicago)

Mexico: 4 people found dead near a hotel in Cancun (CNN)

Entertainment: Thomas Bangalter Explains Why Daft Punk Broke Up (Consequence)

Sports: Watch as Shohei Ohtani runs across outfield to greet his hero, Ichiro (USA Today)

Economy: The US Warehouse Capital Boomed During the Pandemic. Now It’s Facing a Slowdown (Bloomberg)

EDUCATION

Parental Politics

Last month the Republican-led House of Representatives passed the Parents Bill of Rights, which codifies parental rights in the classroom, a major issue in the so-called “culture war.” It seems unlikely to pass in the Senate, where Democrats are in power, as they’ve referred to the legislation as the “Politics Over Parents Act.”

Reporting from the Left: House passes GOP education bill that aims to provide additional oversight for parents (CNN)

Reporting from the Right: 'Parents Bill of Rights' wins zero votes from Dems who attack it as 'fascism,' 'extreme' attack on schools (Fox News)

From The Flag: The bill mostly centers around things like curriculum and books used in classrooms. Republicans call it an attempt to bring “transparency and accountability to education,” but Democrats argue it makes book bans more likely without giving parents any new rights. Here’s more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Parents Are Right To Be Fed Up, But Conservatives Can’t Overreach Here

• Progressive values and approaches to things like gender transition are “religion” to the Left, and to object is apparently “fascist.”

• Republicans are well-intentioned given how parents feel about schools, but this is a violation of federalism.

• There is legitimate debate about whether the federal government should assert itself over schools this way, but Democrats instead opted for hysterics.

“Democrats believe parents don’t have the right to raise their own kids” Bethany Mandel, New York Post: “The reality is that gender transition causes lifelong and irreversible damage to developing bodies. Not wanting schools to assign this kind of content to children is ‘fascism’ according to squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). She proclaimed… ‘I can say what my progressive value is, and that is freedom over fascism.’ AOC is free to read her children whatever books she wants, but she doesn’t have any. … 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. Progressives want taxpayers to subsidize their indoctrination of our kids. AOC is right that the Parents Bill of Rights is part of a fight against fascism, but she’s playing on the wrong team.”

“In pursuit of protecting students, House GOP endangers local school rule and spurs federal overreach” Rep. Ken Buck, Washington Times Opinion: “This movement is about one thing: giving parents more control over their children’s education. … The measure has a fatal flaw, however. While seemingly reinforcing parents’ rights, it undermines the critical principle for conservatives: federalism, the bedrock of our liberty. The Constitution provides a limited list of federal powers. As conservatives have rightly pointed out for decades, education is not on that list. My fellow Republicans in the House, confusing themselves with a national school board, believe the federal government should step in to protect parents. But let’s consider the implications. If a GOP-led House says the federal government can mandate that all schools provide parents with copies of teacher lesson plans, what is to stop a future Democrat-led Congress from passing a law that prohibits this type of transparency, despite what local school districts have implemented, and despite what works best at the local level?”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Democrats vs. Parents The Editors, National Review

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Republicans’ Hypocritical Push for More Government Actually Restricts Parents’ Rights

• While the phrase “parents’ rights” seems innocuous, the term is effectively used to marginalize certain parents’ voices.

• The bill is really just a blueprint for conservative bullying of teachers, students, and school boards about race and gender.

• While ​​Republicans traditionally argue for less government, it seems when it comes to schools, they now want more.

“What the Republican Push for ‘Parents’ Rights’ Is Really About” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times Opinion: “You may have heard the phrase ‘parents’ rights.’ It sounds unobjectionable — of course parents should have rights — which is probably why it’s become the term of choice for the conservative effort to ban books, censor school curriculums and suppress politically undesirable forms of knowledge. When House Republicans introduced a bill that would require public schools to notify parents that they are entitled to see course material and lists of books kept in school libraries, they cited ‘parents’ rights’ as the reason. ‘Parents’ rights,’ you will have noticed, never seems to involve parents who want schools to be more open and accommodating toward gender-nonconforming students. It’s never invoked for parents who want their students to learn more about race, identity and the darker parts of American history. And we never hear about the rights of parents who want schools to offer a wide library of books and materials to their children.”

“The GOP's 'Parents Bill of Rights' excludes millions of parents” Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion: “The legislation isn’t a complete nightmare. Some parts of it make sense and could have easily been a bipartisan effort, including a requirement that parents be notified when violence occurs on school grounds and a ban on schools selling student data for commercial purposes. The bulk of it, though, was drafted as a blueprint for the harassment of teachers, administrators and school boards that has escalated over the past three years. Those confrontations have been part of a supposedly grassroots movement from parents who believe that schools have gone too far in their liberalism. Often it turns out that whatever concerns are being expressed — Covid mitigation in classrooms, teachers pushing ‘critical race theory,’ or pro-LGBTQ materials ‘grooming’ students — are getting amplified and coordinated through groups that just happen to be filled with Republican operatives.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Do we need more ‘parental rights’ — or help fixing the real problems in education? The Editors, The Hechinger Report

FLAG THIS

How the Sunshine State Sees That Other Education Issue

While books and curriculum are the focus of the House Republicans’ bill, another hot button issue in schools is how to approach issues surrounding gender identity and sexuality.

In Florida, the state’s new Parental Rights in Education law is popular per a new poll, which finds 61% of registered voters support the measure. Many on the Left have dubbed the law “Don’t Say Gay” as it restricts gender and sexuality discussions in classrooms through the third grade.

The survey found a majority of all three major political groups (70% of Republicans, 58% of Independents, and 55% of Democrats) agreed with this part of the law: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” (Public Opinion Strategies)

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WATERCOOLER

Tired All the Time, Why We Care About Work, Netflix and Grieve

On This Day in 1994: Modern rock icon Kurt Cobain dies by suicide. His body was discovered inside his home in Seattle, Washington, three days later by Gary Smith, an electrician, who was installing a security system in the house.

Science Focus: Tired all the time? Here’s how to kick sleep deprivation for good

The Atlantic: Why Americans Care About Work So Much

Fast Company: Netflix and grieve: Inside the digital afterlife of streaming profiles

Today I Learned a 30-year-old woman from New Zealand died in 2013 due to cardiac arrhythmia, linked to her habit of drinking up to 2.6 gallons of Coca-Cola daily.