Scott Turner, Parents are the experts when it comes to their children. But most parents are not experts in fighting back against some of the indoctrination and radical gender-theory curriculum being presented to our children.
That is why the America First Policy Institute has created and deployed Parent Power, a free-to-the-public website containing perhaps the largest, most comprehensive databases on public schools in the Nation. By providing parents in every school district in America with the contact information of their school board members and school choice laws, parents can work to ensure school board members will champion their values, once again putting the American people first.
The Parent Power Movement began during the pandemic when parents learned (often by listening in on a Zoom classroom) that their children’s schools produced more indoctrination than instruction. It accelerated into a mass movement when these newly engaged parents observed ineffective teaching strategies, technology issues, and radical gender ideology inflicted on young children — by the very institutions they entrusted them to. Parent Power fixes this, leaving you, the parent, in control.
There is no single person behind the Parent Power Movement. It is a movement uniquely by and for the American people. No elected official or aspirant for office is spearheading it because it is not about politics. This movement is about the most fundamental parental rights — and the Left’s war on our families. It has been a war based on parental disengagement and well-meaning obliviousness for decades.
If you are a parent, whether you are a Liberal, Conservative, or something in between, you are a parent first — and you deserve what is best for your child.
Polling data indicates that 72% of registered voters favor school choice. Additionally, these voters believe public school boards are not respectful of the role of parents. Parents should be able to see all curriculum plans and materials for classes their children take; most parents feel that public schools have lowered standards rather than demanding more from students.
According to the results of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the 2022 academic scores for our Nation’s students in reading and math are the lowest in the history of the NAEP tests. One out of three students nationwide cannot do math or read at grade level. One out of four is not even at minimal, basic levels. It is also reported that the longer schools in a given state remained closed due to COVID-19, the worse their losses in NAEP math scores on average.
This learning loss has brought to light the need for reforms to the public education system. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has championed the idea of creating school choice and amending the Texas Constitution to include a “Parental Bill of Rights.” In Indiana, Attorney General Todd Rokita released his state’s “Parent’s Bill of Rights,” which acted as “a roadmap for Hoosier parents and caregivers to exercise their legal right to direct their children’s education.” On the federal level, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri filed the “Parent’s Bill of Rights Act of 2021” in November 2021.
These bills and those filed in many other states advocate for the same basic principle: Parents deserve to be part of their child’s education, and just because a child is sent to a government-run school does not grant the government ultimate authority over the student. That power still rests in the hands of the parents.
This view is not new; it’s ingrained in the American way of life. James Wilson, a Founding Father and Associate Justice of the first United States Supreme Court, held that “It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.”
The fight for pro-America education and parental rights has seen many victories in recent months, and that is because parents throughout the Nation have refused to give up. This website will further equip the parent army assembled to fight for our Nation’s children.
Scott Turner serves as the America First Policy Institute’s Chair of the Center for Education Opportunity. He previously served as director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council as well as a Texas State Representative for the 33rd district. Turner was an American football cornerback who played in the NFL for nine seasons.