Recently, Chris Cargill, Eastern Washington director of the right-wing Washington Policy Center, advocated for a parents’ bill of rights to improve our educational system. But how would that help?
Shouldn’t students themselves, especially at the high school level, have at least equal voice to their parents, since their education affects their own lives? Maybe Cargill thinks students and their parents agree on what would improve their education, but is there evidence of that?
Polls show considerable disagreement between high school-age students and those of their parents’ age on Trumpism, for example. Parents disrupt school board meetings protesting vaccine and mask mandates, whereas recently Seattle students joined nationwide protests to call for stronger COVID protocols. Angry parents demand the ban of books against students’ wishes. Few parents insist on more instruction on global warming, which is uppermost in many students’ minds.
And most tragically, white parents opposing the accurate teaching of U.S. racial history apparently don’t care about their negative impact on the social-emotional growth and academic achievements of students of color. Students of color undoubtedly agree with their parents on full coverage of such history.
Should we instead have a students’ bill of rights promoting their measured input into final educational decisions made by their teachers and schools?
