The legislative effort to demoralize Kansas teachers
Will Governor Kelly veto it?
Parents of school children have rights. They always have had the right to know what their children are reading, studying, and learning. So let’s talk about those rights.
Parents have access in every school district to an online portal (often called “Power School”) where they can track their children’s grades, find out about assignments that are due or past due, and see the requirements for various projects.
Parents have access to their child’s teachers. They can telephone or email and expect a return call or response. There are regularly scheduled parent conferences where teachers meet individually with parents. There are also regularly scheduled parent nights such as “Back to School Night” where parents learn about what is and will be happening in the classroom.
Parents receive school and classroom newsletters either in print or via email. These newsletters are full of up to date information about what is happening in the classroom. At the start of the school year, parents receive parent handbooks that explain school and classroom expectations and calendars.
Parents can choose to be even more deeply involved in the school. There are opportunities through the Parent Teacher Association or Parent Teacher Organization. Elementary schools often recruit “room parents” to provide support for the students and teacher in that classroom. Parents are often asked to chaperone field trips or dances. There are booster organizations in secondary schools run by parents.
School district and school websites are loaded with information right now about curriculum and standards, about events, and about opportunities to learn more of what happens day to day.
And every parent can sit down at any time and talk to their children. They can see the books and materials being read by simply watching their child do homework or asking - either the child or the teacher. The backpack itself is a wealth of information about lessons and curriculum.
So why all of a sudden do think tanks that seek to end public education by making it a for-profit corporate endeavor want to push a so-called “parents bill of rights?”
This idea is not unique to Kansas. The same bill in one form or another is being pressed in state legislatures all across the nation. The one that has received the most press is the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida but they are all cut from the same anti-public education cloth.
The focus is on forcing schools and teachers to post everything they do - every lesson plan, every book available to students, every professional development opportunity educators take part in. They encourage efforts to ban books - and the resulting efforts are focused exclusively on books written by minority or LGBTQ authors or featuring minority or LGBTQ characters. These efforts are not about “protecting” one’s own child from reading these books but about an individual parent denying all children access to these books.
And, by the way, parents have ALWAYS had the right to request alternative readings or assignments for their children when they perceive that the material being used conflicts with their personal or religious beliefs.
So what ultimately is the goal of the organizations pushing this agenda? The Kansas Policy Institute has fought for years to privatize public education in Kansas by demanding reduced funding for schools. Their partner organization, Americans for Prosperity, needs schools to be privatized and funding cut so that they can secure more corporate tax cuts.
This latest effort is simply a way to demoralize teachers encouraging them to quit and slashing the availability of a qualified corps of public school educators. It is an effort to convince parents who believe in those teachers and schools that something sinister is afoot. They promote conspiracy theories intended to sow confusion.
Educators want parents to call them, to get engaged in their child’s education, to support and encourage their children’s learning. Educators want parents to attend conferences, join the PTA or PTO, and follow PowerSchool. Learning happens best when parents and teachers communicate and support each other. Learning won’t be improved by posting lesson plans and exhaustive lists of books and materials online.
The only ones who will benefit from passage of these bills are the dark money groups seeking to privatize our public schools for their corporate masters. Don’t be fooled. Our children will end up losing in the long run.