FAIR News: Continuing the Fight to Protect Parental Rights

Newsletter

Creator: Will & Deni McIntyre | Credit: Getty Images

Dear Friends of FAIR,

Another day and another Executive Order that aligns squarely with FAIR’s mission: Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling. Below is a quick summary of the EO and our thoughts:

The foundational premise for President Donald Trump's latest EO is that parents instill their trust in our public schools “to provide a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand.” As the Administration sees it, American schools have failed to live up to their end of the bargain, and have allowed the educational environment to morph into an “echo chamber” where “students are forced to accept [radical] ideologies without question or critical examination.” The “radical ideologies” targeted by the EO include “discriminatory equity ideology” and “gender ideology.” It is President Trump’s position that these are “Anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies” that violate “long standing anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases” and also usurp basic parental authority.

The EO specifically promises to enforce the following laws to ensure that public schools comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights:

• Title VI;

• Title IX;

• Family Education Rights and Privacy Act; and

• Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment

How the new administration will go about enforcing these laws in order to attain the goals of the EO remains to be seen, but the EO specifically requires agency heads to create an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” to be presented to the President within 90 days of the EO. The Strategy will include recommendations and a plan to:

• “Eliminat[e] Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology;”

• “Protect[] parental rights;

• Identify all funding sources and streams that “directly or indirectly support or subsidize the instruction, advancement, or promotion of gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology” (with respect to both students and teacher education and training) and develop a plan to “prevent or rescind” such funding.

The EO also directs the Attorney General to work with State attorneys general “to enforce the law and file appropriate actions against K-12 teachers and schools officials who violate the law by: (i) sexually exploiting minors; (ii) unlawfully practicing medicine by offering diagnoses and treatment without the requisite license; or (iii) otherwise unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student.”

Finally, the EO reestablishes the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission and sets forth directives aimed at promoting Patriotic Education.

The bulk of the EO directly informs much of the work FAIR does concerning K-12 education, and we support efforts to enforce existing laws to protect against the creation and ongoing existence of racially hostile learning environments, while simultaneously upholding students’ First Amendment right to receive information that represents varying points of view. We also strongly support clear enforcement of FERPA and the PPRA as mechanisms to uphold parents’ 14th Amendment right to direct and control the upbringing of their children.

The recent EO is particularly relevant at this time of year: Black Lives Matter @ School Action Week begins on Monday. School districts across the country observe this week by teaching students lessons about “13 guiding principles and 4 demands of Black Lives Matter at School.” The lessons commonly taught as part of Action Week often include elements that are likely to foster racially hostile learning environments. In case you are concerned about your own child’s experience at school during Action Week, we have created the Action Week Toolkit to inform you of your rights and to provide action tools you can use to protect your children. You can access the Action Week Toolkit here.

Check back on the FAIR homepage for information about upcoming webinars on the executive order on indoctrination in K-12 education, school choice, and the future of higher education.

Warmly,
The Team at FAIR

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FAIR Arts Community Meetup with Carrie Manolakos

Join FAIR in the Arts on February 4th at 8pm ET for a virtual Community Meetup with singer, actress, songwriter, and voice coach Carrie Manolakos. We look forward to speaking with Carrie about her story coming up in show business before going on to forge her own independent career path. We will speak with Carrie for the first 45 minutes and then open into a community discussion afterwards. Connect with like-minded artists advocating for a common culture of free expression, excellence, and humanity in the arts.

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Teachers, administrators, librarians, and educators of all kinds are welcome. For more information and to join any of these networks, please email educators@fairforall.org.

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