Referring to Florida's new parental rights law, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says such legislation can start wars. But Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for education studies at the Family Research Council (FRC), says it is actually the leftist rhetoric that is "very dangerous."
"It's irresponsible, and it's exactly the kind of thing that the left likes to charge conservatives with, and particularly Christians with," she submits.
Kilgannon acknowledges that many teachers do not buy into the leftists' game plan but says others are fully committed to indoctrinating students with critical race theory materials.
"Teachers who do choose to be political activists and put their activism before the interests of children's education -- parental rights bills are a great resource for parents to fight back against that kind of activism," she asserts
According to Fox News, Weingarten has also accused parents of wanting to marginalize LGBTQ students and censor teachers. And while she takes issue with parental rights in education, she supports the Department of Education's new regulatory proposal to establish a series of new requirements and prioritizations for charter schools seeking access to federal funds.
"We appreciate the department's proposed regulations," Weingarten responded when the Biden administration issued the proposal.
Andrew Handel, director of the Education and Workforce Development Task Force at American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), however, sees a few problems.
"It appears as if the Department is trying to declare war on charter schools, essentially preventing existing charters from expanding and preventing new charters from being able to get started," he explains. "Those two requirements are that charter schools will have to produce a signed letter from their public school counterparts in order to obtain the federal funding, and charter schools will also have to prove there is an enrollment need in the community that they wish to serve."
Handel goes on to note ALEC's model policy for charter schools, which is called the Next Generation Charter Schools Act.
"It's a culmination of all the different ideas from our public sector members around the country to establish a robust, accountable, and transparent charter school system in any state that wishes to consider it," he says.
Handel adds that the model policy provides a number of great suggestions, and he recommends that state lawmakers take it into consideration.
