Education is a children’s issue.

While we have heard a great deal from politicians and well-funded right-wing groups about parental rights in education, education is a children’s issue. Their needs, concerns, and well-being must no longer be ignored by adults, including politicians. After all, the goal and purpose of education is to nurture the intellectual, social, and emotional growth of children and to create a nation of informed and engaged citizens for their future and our democracy.

The fact is: children have fundamental rights too.

To the adults clamoring that education is about them, such as some of the “parental rights” organizations, it isn’t.

There is no doubt that parents are fundamental to the upbringing of children, and it is important that they be engaged and involved in the education of their children. Children have been outcomes when their parents are involved.

However, parents should not control all curriculum and education decisions. Teachers and educators are experts in education and learning. Our nation is successfully because of our public schools because it is education that is fundamental to the work and life skills of all of us. And if you have never worked or volunteered in a school, you really have no idea what it takes to educate and support the needs of hundreds of children.

Our nation’s teachers and educators deserve our collective respect for the incredible work they do every single day.

For all the other adults in the lives of children, including both parents and governmental leaders, stop with the politics. Instead, commit to keeping our collective focus on what is really important, which is the education, well-being, and safety of students.

As for the other adults seeking to capitalize upon children for personal gain — including the privatizers, profiteers, proselytizers, political promoters of moral panic, and book banners — the nation’s children overwhelmingly reject your interference and intrusion.

Presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan tried to evoke these themes in 1995 (along with a defense of southern war memorials and the control of children) in his failed presidential campaign.

User Clip: Buchanan on "parental rights"

Buchanan on "parental rights"

Buchanan on "parental rights"www.c-span.org

Just as it was back in the 1990s, the parental rights, privatizers, profiteers, proselytizers, and moral panic promoters agenda should be soundly rejected once again. As Joshua Weishart points out this agenda is back and focused on negative rights. He explains:

…all the oxygen in the room is consumed by a negative conception of parental freedom, a “freedom from” something — from public schools, health mandates, anti-racism curriculum. Fear and uncertainty, abundant in these times, drive us to such isolating, individualized forms of freedom.
Yet unbounded, parental freedom serves only to stratify students, divide communities, and undercut the mission of public schools. And perhaps dismantling public education is ultimately the point.

This is why it should be rejected. And in case older generations need to be reminded, education is a children’s issue.

And what children need is access to a high-quality education and protection from harm. They do not need or want adults imposing book bans, censorship, or speech codes that prevent truthful and honest presentation about history, civics, literature, and science or the censorship of discussions and thoughts or kids and their teachers. Kids need adults to stop and listen to them — to their needs, their concerns, their hopes, their dreams, and their rights.

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) gets it. He struck at the fundamental flaw and failure of the congressional Parents Bill of Rights (H.R. 5) by asking:

…what about the rights of our students? What about the rights of our young people?

User Clip: Frost on Parental Rights Bill

Frost on Parental Rights Bill

Frost on Parental Rights Billwww.c-span.org

Based in part upon language introduced by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) in H.Res. 219 and some of the points raised by Rep. Frost and others in opposition to H.R. 5, First Focus Campaign for Children proposes a framework for a Children’s Bill of Rights that includes:

1) The right to access public education: Every child has the right to access free public education, regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, socio-economic status, immigration status, religion, or zip code.

2) The right to quality and equitable public education: Every child has the right to receive a well-funded, high-quality, and responsive public education that prepares them for the future and enables them to reach their full potential, with equitable access to resources and opportunity.

3) The right to a safe and supportive learning environment: Children have the right to a safe and supportive learning environment that fosters their physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being, and protects them from violence, including gun violence, child abuse, corporal punishment, bullying, and discrimination.

4) The right to participate in their own education and have access to educational information: Children have the right to participate in their own education and be involved in decisions that affect their learning. This includes the right to express themselves freely, have their opinions and ideas respected by others, and to access educational information free from censorship and other restrictions driven by partisanship and ideology.

5) The right to be treated with respect and dignity: Children have the right to be treated with respect and dignity by teachers, administrators, other students, and politicians who often ignore and dismiss their needs and concerns.

6) The right to access technology: Children have the right to access technology and resources that support their learning and development while ensuring their safety.

7) The right to receive special education and support services: Every child has the right to receive special education and support services if they have learning or developmental needs that require special assistance and accommodation.

8) The right to learn in a culturally responsive and inclusive environment: Children have the right to learn in a multiethnic, diverse, culturally responsive, and inclusive environment that values and respects their background and experiences.

9) The right to access health care services: All children have the right to access health services without undue delays and bureaucracy that restricts their access to care, and in a manner that respects their privacy and confidentiality.

10) The right to access food and nutrition: All children have a right to be ready to learn, which includes having access to food and nutrition that supports their learning and health development.

These rights, if implemented, would guarantee that every child has access to a high-quality education that fosters opportunity and child well-being, respects their dignity, supports their learning, growth, and development, while protecting them from violence, ensuring equitable access to resources, and providing access to health care services and supports.

Adults, it is time to do better by our kids. Children deserve nothing less from us. Either help or get out of the way.

#Commit2Kids

If you would like to help ensure that children and their needs, concerns, and best interests are no longer ignored by policymakers and to protect our nation’s public schools from continued assault, please consider joining us as an “Ambassador for Children” or make a donation to help us continue our work on behalf of children.

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Why Education Is a Children’s Issue and a Matter of Child Rights