by Benjamin Yount
A plan that would spell out what Wisconsin parents can do or expect from their kids’ schools is coming up before lawmakers.
The Assembly’s Committee on Education has a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning on the Parental Bill of Rights.
“It’s very healthy for our state to have a school system that is parent-centered, and parent-focused,” CJ Szafir, President of the Institute for Reforming Government, told The Center Square on Wednesday.
The Parents Bill of Rights details 15 rights that parents in Wisconsin schools would have including:
- The right to determine the religion of the child.
- The right to determine the type of school or educational setting the child attends.
- The right to determine the names and pronouns used for the child while at school.
- The right to review instructional materials and outlines used by the child’s school.
- The right to access any education-related information regarding the child.
- The right to request notice of when certain subjects will be taught or discussed in the child’s classroom.
- The right to opt out of a class or instructional materials for reasons based on either religion or personal conviction.
- The right to engage with locally elected school board members of the school district in which the child is a student, including participating at regularly scheduled school board meetings.
“A lot of this should be intuitive, a lot of this in a perfect world would not be necessary,” Szafir explained. “One of the roles of state government is to spell out these rights so that parents across the state understand their powers when it comes to their child’s education.”
The Parents Bill of Rights is one of several sweeping education reforms being championed by conservatives and Republican lawmakers at the Capitol. The Assembly Committee on Education will likely hear the plan to break up Milwaukee Public Schools and expand school choice next week.
And just like the MPS plan, the Parents Bill of Rights is almost certainly headed for a veto from Gov. Evers.
Szafir said a veto from the governor will likely only upset parents more.
“We’ve seen a great awakening of parents,” Szafir said. “There are parents all across the state of Wisconsin who are angry, feeling like they are helpless, feeling like they don’t have any control over their child’s school.”
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “CJ Szafir” by The Federalist Society. Background Photo “Wisconsin State Assembly” by Royalbroil CC BY-SA 3.0.
