Parents called terrorists

[gabester]

I'm lazy and have lost the thread... Speaker McCarthy is on C-SPAN introducing HB.5 which has 5 pillars of parents' rights in their education... and all the people at his roundtable keep talking about how some parents were called terrorists at some point?

My google is weak today... I get the gist that some parents were shocked by their kids learning some things and trying to speak out at school board meetings. Does some MRFriend want to give me the backstory?

[timg]

no backstory. no one called them terrorists. they made it up.

[RgrF]

Senator Foghorn Leghorn has an issue about this.

[SteveG]

BREAKING: For months, Republicans have claimed that the DOJ had targeted parents for making complaints to their school board. Today Senator John Kennedy asked Attorney General Merrick Garland about just that. AG Garland completely debunked the entire talking point.

And just like that another GOP talking point dies at the hand of facts. This is all Republicans have -- made up lies that they make go viral. People need to stop believing Fox News!

[Ted King]

I taught for 30 years before retiring. I would not consider going into teaching today and this regressiveness is one of the big reasons. Teaching is way, way hard enough without having to worry about this crap.

[RgrF]

My daughter is 20+ years of teaching, S-I-L is 30+. Both at middle /high school level and both have now abandoned teaching for available administrative posts. The grand-kids, who grew up wanting to emulate their parents, are being encouraged to redirect their life goals away from education.

This trend bodes ill for future generations of students who will be left with the least rather than the best from educational pools - an educational brain drain.

[gabester]

I guess there was this lady Nicole Solas in Rhode Island getting sued by the NEA, because she was asking questions about the curriculum and wanted to know whether her kids' schools were teaching gender or critical race theory, and they told her to submit the local equivalent of a FOIA request, so she ended up submitting something like 200 of them, she claims she felt singled out and bullied when the school board had a meeting about her and her information requests...

Coming from some familiarity with how (parts of) school district works, yes, I do agree with the assessments above that these are essentially more blatant fabrications and distortions of truth to foment outrage amongst the deplorably clueless base about how our public institutions work.

At the end of it, it sounds like a bunch of religiously intolerant parents saw what their kids were learning in public schools and started to stir up trouble by acting out side of the norms. What individual concerned parent submits dozens much less hundreds of FOIA requests rather than talking to their kids' teachers? My schools have twice annual if not more frequent conferences for each child. Not everyone takes advantage, but apparently these "terrorist" parents were also extreme advocates of letting "Jesus take the wheel" when it comes to their own children' education...

[bfd]

RgrF wrote:
My daughter is 20+ years of teaching, S-I-L is 30+. Both at middle /high school level and both have now abandoned teaching for available administrative posts. The grand-kids, who grew up wanting to emulate their parents, are being encouraged to redirect their life goals away from education.

This trend bodes ill for future generations of students who will be left with the least rather than the best from educational pools - an educational brain drain.

[sarcasm]Not at all what the Repugs had in mind with all of the voucher and "no child left behind" lies and associated nonsense. [/sarcasm]

… the dumbing down of a populace and taking it over starts with education (or a lack thereof). It's not a question of if at this point, just a question of when.

[Ombligo]

My wife has decided to call it quits this year after 30 years in the classroom. While she admits the kids are more difficult now, it is the adults that made her decision easy. Administrators, politicians, and parents all know better than experienced educators. The losers are the children.

[davemchine]

There was a claim that Attorney General Merrick Garland asked Biden to categorize parent protests on school grounds as terrorism. Some articles say it happened. Other articles say it didn't happen.

From what I read this news story came out of parents protesting the content of sex education classes and also some history regarding racial issues. Trying to understand all of the problems that pop up under this umbrella is a little bit like trying to untangle spaghetti.