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August 15, 2023

Decades of research into children’s educational achievement repeatedly demonstrate the absolute necessity of parental engagement.  Ranging from 1966 with the classic Coleman report to 2007 with a longitudinal NICHD study, parents and the family are by far the most influential elements determining educational outcomes.

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In fact, the NEA itself in 2006 called for including parents and training for teachers in the process.  Particularly, respectful engagement is key:

“Respectful relationships where power is shared between school staff and family members provide the glue that holds the community together and positively influences parents’ involvement.”

—Karen Mapp, 2003

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Indeed, some teachers and schools go to great lengths for parental engagement, providing online access to student grades, attendance, and behavior reports as well as resources and assignments.  Regular email, voicemail, and text notifications keep parents informed while smartphone apps permit ongoing conversations.

But that is not always the case.  Some teachers, unions, school boards, and government actors deliberately exclude parents, dissolving the communal “glue” essential to educating kids.  Why?

In 2013, the NEA proposed ejecting “right-wingers” from school boards, while today an overtly partisan NEA supports parent-derisive politicians while declaring opposition to “anti–Critical Race Theory (CRT) rhetoric.”  The NEA demands parents embrace one political view or be banished.

Such partisanship formed the Biden administration’s now-defunct National Parents and Families Engagement Council.  Lamenting that conservative groups “attacked” efforts at parental engagement, partisan educators ironically called for “depoliticization” while pushing intrinsically political CRT-inspired diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) and LGBT activist curricula.

Despite lack of historical or factual basis for either the 1619 Project or the Zinn Education Project, the NEA trumpeted their use in 2021.  Thousands of zealot teachers declared their intent to violate laws and push these pseudo-histories.  Claiming allegiance to the CRT “truth” that America is “structurally racist,” they ignore evidence to the contrary.

Meanwhile, LGBT-activist educators expose students to pornography, while parents seeking opt-outs are deceived or denied.  Myriad traumatic issues result including shock, damaged self-esteem, alienation, risky/violent sexual behavior and suicide.  Sexually abusing children with pornography is exploited by child predators to manipulate or “groom” their victims — yet defended by partisan advocates.