Parental rights and responsibilities

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: It’s Thursday the 20th of April, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up: parental bills of rights.

In the first quarter of this year, legislators in 24 states have introduced or pre-filed over 60 bills that would codify the rights of parents regarding the education of their children. Bills in states like New Hampshire, Iowa, and North Carolina have passed in at least one legislative chamber.

BUTLER: Meanwhile, House Republicans introduced a parental rights bill back in March.

KEVIN McCARTHY: When you have a child, that is the most important thing in your life, you'll give your life for that child. And one thing we know in this country is education is the great equalizer and we want the parents to be empowered and that's what we're doing today, that you have a say in your kids' education, not government, and not telling you what to do.

BUTLER: House Democrats didn’t agree. Here is Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO CORTEZ: This flowery language of quote unquote, parental rights and freedom hides the sinister fact of this legislative text. If you notice in these arguments, they are not really discussing what is actually in this legislation. It includes two provisions that require schools to out trans, non binary and LGBT youth, even if it would put said youth in harm's way.

BROWN: Republicans had the votes to get the bill through the House on March 24th, but the bill may end up stuck in the Senate where Democrats hold the majority.

So why are parental bills of rights necessary? Is the Bill of Rights in the Constitution somehow insufficient? WORLD Reporter Lauren Canterberry weighs in.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: A lot of supporters do recognize that the Bill of Rights in the Constitution affords parents a lot of these rights, as evidenced by those rights being upheld by the Supreme Court on numerous occasions. But some of the people who have put forward this legislation say that there has been a more concerted effort to use other types of legislation to prevent parents from having, say, in their children's education, or having access to information about the schools that their children are in. So it's really more taking these rights that are somewhat nebulous or general in the Bill of Rights and making them more specific to parents and to parenting and making choices for their children.

BUTLER: State parental bills have included a variety of provisions, from school library reviews to opting kids out of wearing face masks. But the fundamental focus of these bills is on open communication with parents.

CANTERBERRY: Many of them do consider information about a student being shared with their parents as critical to parental rights, things like a child asking to go by a different name or pronoun. But also, a lot of these bills require schools to allow parents to have meetings with teachers. Not that that's not happening, but really prioritizing keeping parents in the loop about how their children are doing at school, how they're behaving at school. That's a really big one that most of these bills agree on. When it comes to curriculum itself, some bills prioritize more of an opt out model where parents have to be provided with all the information about curriculum, and have the opportunity to opt out of something they disagree with. But when it comes to that curriculum piece that's a little bit more nuanced, and a bit different from state to state, depending on what that state already teaches.

BROWN: While lawmakers debate the merits of parental rights bills, moms and dads already have rights they may not realize they could be exercising. Lauren spoke with a teacher who supports expanding parents’ access to information about their children’s education, but says parents can do more to be engaged.

CANTERBERRY: She has seen a drop in the number of parents who request those parent teacher conferences, who do check in on their kids’ learning. And she really came from it of the perspective that if parents are going to have the right to know what's going on in school, then they also have the responsibility to know what's going on in school and to be engaged with that process. It's not as simple as having it codified into law. So you can point to when you feel like it's not been respected, but it's also if you have that, right, you should be engaging with that, right? And checking in with your students, teachers and just following their education in a way that is constructive for them.

BUTLER: Lauren Canterberry is a reporter for WORLD. If you’d like to read her story on what lawmakers are doing to protect parents’ rights in education, we’ve put a link to it in today’s transcript.

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