This tweet, piggybacking off of a piece in The Nation about how Republicans turned “school choice” into a losing issue, has been garnering a lot of attention. Jennifer Berkshire is co-author of “A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School.” The Amazon description? “If America’s public schools don’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it won’t just be due to the virus. Opponents of public education have long sought to dismantle our system of free, universal, and taxpayer-funded schooling.… Now, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door takes their analyses a step further, addressing an urgent question: Why is the right so fixated on dismantling public education in the United States?”
Note that *parents’ rights* is now some sort of right-wing movement to destroy democracy.
This isn't just some fringe WI state rep btw. *Parents' rights* is a centerpiece of a GOP that is increasingly hostile to public education AND democracy https://t.co/Fxq164X1GC
— Jennifer Berkshire (@BisforBerkshire) September 24, 2021
Cause: public education-union complex de-emphasizing the three R’s and infecting schools with social justice of all absurd flavors
Effect: parents asserting their rights to be parents
— Scott Greenstone (@GreenstoneScott) September 25, 2021
parents' rights oh no the horror 😱👻 https://t.co/vdzqKYrvvs
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) September 25, 2021
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) September 25, 2021
Parents rights coming under more attack by statists and Communists who think they own your children. Public education should be accountable to YOU, the parents, and serve you and your children. These people have lost the plot and must be removed from the power they abuse. https://t.co/sM2XGuQ34M
— James Lindsay, sexiest man alive (@ConceptualJames) September 25, 2021
It's always "democracy" that's in danger. You want parents rights, well you're a seditionist and you're hostile to democracy. Do they themselves believe the shit they say? https://t.co/4HxC0gsstB
— Abhi (@abhi_knight00) September 25, 2021
Parents aren't hostile to public education & democracy. Parents are hostile to those who think they know better! Kids are not property of the state. Parents want the ability to choose the best schools for their kids & that's what school choice is about. Do better!
— rob10101 (@rob101011) September 25, 2021
"People having a say in how things are done is a threat to democracy" <— That's you. That's how dumb you sound.
— WheelmanForHire (@WheelmanForHire) September 25, 2021
Admit that there are teachers, districts, and unions who wish to push agendas forcing the lack of trust. If there are no “parent’s rights” for their own children then there are no rights at all. Parents are the authority, not you.
— Bobby Davidson (@Bobby_Davidson) September 25, 2021
"How DARE parents have rights concerning their own children! This is increasingly hostile to the state's ability to take full control of the next generation!" https://t.co/JogrLrCyiY
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) September 25, 2021
"We will tell your children what is right and wrong. We will tell your children what to believe. We will give your children their identity, their morals, their values, their ideology. We will control your children."
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) September 26, 2021
The disdain towards parents is a tell. https://t.co/NOD6ai6hD3
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) September 25, 2021
Isn’t it?
Parents are the primary educators of a child. Schools are the junior partner in a partnership to educate and form children into virtuous adults. https://t.co/NOD6ahOGLv
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) September 25, 2021
When did parents' rights become a bad thing? I've been talking about the loss of parent's rights for 20 years. I'm glad it's at least being talked about now. https://t.co/x2wghYcuMh
— Ruth Peterson (@RuthAPeterson) September 25, 2021
The biggest problem with socialists isn't that they consider your property their property, it's that they consider your children their property. https://t.co/ivkC1btR95
— Jacob Adkins (@Jadkins151) September 25, 2021
Imagine defending an increasingly failing, monopolistic, one-size-fits-all, special interest dominated education system in the name of democracy…by denying "parents' rights."
I'm not sure who taught @BisforBerkshire math, but this equation doesn't add up #studentsnotsystems https://t.co/CIqddCSOis
— Nathaniel D. Cunneen (@nathancunneen) September 25, 2021
Anyone who believes that parents' rights are hostile to democracy does not understand parents' rights or democracy and should certainly not be involved in childhood education. https://t.co/W4Jcdf2mCY
— Josh Steimle (@joshsteimle) September 25, 2021
Terrifying & disgusting
They really do want our kids https://t.co/6G9cJK8rp1
— AKS (@Anise_Sugar) September 25, 2021
Notice how they keep pretending parental rights are somehow extreme and unreasonable, just crazy ranting from the far-right. https://t.co/vbytHYgV38
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) September 25, 2021
Why is “Parents rights” in quotation marks?
Ignore these people at your peril. https://t.co/jPORh93oga
— Just curious (@ShelleyMcCrory1) September 25, 2021
Would you like to put your preference for state-control of our children up to a vote? When you find you need to put asterisks around *parents' rights* like it's not a real thing, your point is almost certainly at odds with democracy.
— Mike Englund (@MikeEnglund2) September 25, 2021
LMAO look at the way this bint emphasized *pArEnTs’ RiGhTs* like it’s some kind of radical extremist concept, and not a central feature of family life for all human civilization.
Yes. These Commies really do think your kids belong to the state.
Just something to bear in mind… https://t.co/bcE3sTzYly
— Unring This Bell 🎐 (@UnringThisBell) September 25, 2021
Do you realize you said this out loud?
— Norvell Bowden (@fsuglommer) September 25, 2021
what an odd endorsement of the GOP https://t.co/GKCqMtQT2l
— Drew Hancock (@lockoutdays) September 25, 2021
I think this goes without saying.
The GOP will win and is going to make inroads in communities they have struggled to win the past because of the anti parent platform and "your kid belongs to us" messaging coming from the Democrats. https://t.co/L4gRCZ6JHw
— Jeremiah Cota #IStandWithTheAustralians (@jeremiahcota) September 25, 2021
Imagine thinking parents have any rights https://t.co/LbSUw2SLpV
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) September 25, 2021
Attacking parent's rights is an attack on both public education and democracy. https://t.co/xwS5zjS6BI pic.twitter.com/8WEMhMmbVV
— ryuge (@0ryuge) September 25, 2021
Well here we are:
Where "parents rights" can shamelessly be broadcast on social media as hostile to public education and democracy.
They unapologetically see your children as a commodity to be molded and shaped into their image. https://t.co/bHPRIa20t0
— Red Shannon (@rojosports) September 25, 2021
In which the neoliberal machine begins to fear that parents might actually begin to exert an outsized influence on the things their children are taught. https://t.co/qlWuwuCit8
— Josh, Stranger in a strange land. (@StrangerJosh11) September 26, 2021
"Parents' rights" are "hostile to public education AND democracy."
These are the whackos we're fighting, folks. https://t.co/bz54mDiamT
— Bruce Hooley (@BHOOLZ) September 25, 2021
The authoritarian Left isn't even bothering to hide that their purpose for public education (and their version of democracy) is to gain control over your children, to whom they believe they have the sole right of determination. https://t.co/5VroOQBXZf
— Aaron Lockhart 🇺🇸 (@arabbitorduck) September 25, 2021
Totalitarians always attack the family, and try to replace it with state institutions. Undermining the rights of parents to 'interfere' in their children's education is to be expected from them. https://t.co/cfzjtUkyoB
— Stephen St. Onge (@Saintonge235) September 25, 2021
Communists like Jennifer believe your children are theirs to indoctrinate. https://t.co/qgyEFcA7sK
— tomwils1967 (@tomwils1967) September 25, 2021
Lefties like Joy Reid think that critical race theory is a “right-wing bogeyman” and then come out and reveal the real bogeyman is “parents’ rights.”
Related:
Harvard professor recommends a ‘presumptive ban’ on homeschooling, says it violates children’s rights, promotes white supremacy https://t.co/AJlWpx6X56
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 18, 2020
Join the conversation as a VIP Member