"We own our children"

This is what the parental rights movement is up to

Well, it finally happened right here in this small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  Two middle-aged women knocked on my door yesterday and announced they were running for election to the local school board.  Would I vote for them?

Each of them handed me a little card advertising their names, the office they were running for, and their issues.  The words “parental rights” jumped right off both cards.  I asked them what they meant by parental rights. 

“Well, we own our children, so we should have a say in their education,” one of them said.  I told her I have three kids, and I have never thought of “owning” them as a parent.  They are sentient, independent human beings, and I’m their father, but I don’t own them.

“You know what I mean,” the woman said, with a little wink and nod.  No, I don’t, I answered.  Please explain what parental rights you’re talking about.

“We want to be heard by the school board,” she answered.  “They don’t listen to us.”  I asked her what the school board wasn’t listening to.  “We want a role in the schools, in what they are teaching our children,” the woman said. 

Oh, you mean the curriculum?  “Yes, parents have the right to have a voice in what our children are taught.”  And you’re running for the school board so you can influence what children are taught in this district?  “Yes, it’s our right as parents, because we own our children.”

I didn’t bother asking them about banning books and the discussion of LGBTQ topics and all the rest of it, because it was evident they would give some pablum non-answer to the question.  Someone had schooled them to talk about parental rights in a general, non-offensive manner, and not to go further if pressed on the issue.

There is a nationwide right-wing movement out there to elect stealth school board candidates.  It’s run by well-funded organizations like Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, the Alliance Defending Freedom, Parents Defending Education, the 1776 Project PAC, the American Principles PAC, and the Parental Rights Foundation, among a legion of others.  They are supported by right-wing dark money groups like Donors Trust and other fronts for the conservative billionaires that fund them. They backed parental rights bills in Florida in 2021 and Georgia in 2022.  The bills make it easier for parents to challenge school curriculums and to get library books removed that deal with subjects they consider objectionable, such as discussions of race and gender.  Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor and attorney general, and Democrats control the lower body of the legislature, so no parental rights bills will be getting passed in this state for the foreseeable future.  Which is why they are taking the parental rights fight right down to individual school boards across the state.

I handed their campaign literature back to the two women and told them I knew what they were up to and asked them to get off my porch.  Parental rights organizers call teaching subjects they object to liberal indoctrination.  “We own our children” means they want to own yours, too.  It’s not going to happen with the support of my vote.