California’s Parent Revolution Will Impact Midterm Election Outcomes

The parent revolution in California could impact and maybe even determine the outcomes of more than just school board races this November.

The awakening of California parents during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lockdowns of schools across the state can only be described as a revolution. The upheaval of the locked-down California family made many parents realize that the seemingly good, safe public schools they were sending their kids to in working and middle-class neighborhoods, were not that at all.

The realization that California schools had become indoctrination centers stunned millions of parents.

Recently released educational assessment data shows that California performed better than most other states and the nation from 2019-22 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress data, the Globe reported.

Fewer than half of California students met the state standard in English, and only one-third of students met statewide standards for mathematics.

“From 2020 to 2022, reading scores for nine-year-olds on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as the nation’s report card, registered the largest decline since the 1990s, while math scores declined for the first time ever,” education scholars Lance Izumi and Wenyuan Wu recently reported. “These score comparisons were the first nationally representative snapshot of student learning during the pandemic.”

They know what they are talking about. Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research, and Wu is executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation. They are co-authors of an upcoming book on critical race theory in K-12 schools.

The continue: “While school closures and ineffective distance-learning efforts were important reasons for the slide in test scores, former North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue, who chairs the board responsible for the NAEP, warned, ‘We can’t keep blaming COVID.’”

Indeed. This is where indoctrination enters the scene:

• Critical race theory
• Sexualized, pornographic indoctrination
• Using race to undermine teacher quality

In 2019, the California State Board of Education approved highly controversial changes to the state’s health and sex education framework including teaching children about bondage, anal sex, pederasty, sex trafficking, sexual orientation and transgender and non-conforming students, the Globe reported.

What is being taught as sex ed to California school children ironically cannot be spoken on television or radio without violating Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations.

Izumi and Wu further explain:

“The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country, pushes the critical race theory-inspired position that systemic racism permeates all American institutions and must be taught in our schools so that kids challenge “the systems of oppression that have harmed people of color.” In 2021, the NEA adopted a resolution that would mandate race-based ideological instruction in public schools across the country.”

Notably, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a frequent target of Gov. Gavin Newsom, has eliminated “critical race theory” from curricula in its schools. “The Florida Department of Education has released examples of what it calls ‘problematic’ material that led it to ban dozens of math textbooks — including a lesson with an algebra graph measuring racial prejudice,” the NY Post reported. Gov. DeSantis took charge after parents were outraged at the indoctrination and even exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts under the guise of public education curricula. California students are being fed a steady diet of CRT, vile sex indoctrination, “unconscious bias,” while being deprived of U.S. History, English, Math, and real Science.

In California, the Democrat dominated Legislature killed a bill that would have made sexual education in public schools an ‘opt-in’ program. SB 673, authored by then-Senator Mike Morrell (R-Rancho Cucamonga), would have required permission slips filled out by parents to allow children to go to sex ed classes up through the sixth grade.

As Izumi noted in a recent op ed, “Whatever the results of the midterm elections, the new Congress will face many old problems, especially in education.  Yet, despite the seemingly intractable nature of these problems, there are important actions that Congress can take to meet the needs and concerns of parents and their children.”

Izumi says two million students have un-enrolled from the public schools over the last couple years and why, for example, 50,000 students simply failed to show up on the first day of school in Los Angeles.

Parents are voting with their feet that they want more education options for their children, not just the one-size-fits-all often failing public school system.

He outlines how Congress can help increase the educational choices for families:

• Cut Biden Administration regulations to Charter schools, and better fund them. The federal Charter School Program, which sends federal dollars to charter schools, has had stagnant funding for years;
• Increase educational options by allowing parents to choose the education option that best suits the needs of children, and fund the child;
• Enact a tax credit that individuals can claim when they make donations to organizations that award scholarships to students for expenses related to attending their school of their choice.
• Improve accountability and transparency for federal education programs by requiring that federal databases explain the purpose and impact of federal education spending.

“When federal education programs are shown not to work, then they should be eliminated,” Izumi adds.

As for California students, they should be proficient in reading and math Izumi says, and they aren’t even close. Proficient merely means they should be able or competent at reading and math. Less than half of California students met the state standard in English, and only one-third of students met statewide standards for mathematics.

“This is a condemnation of the policies Gov. Newsom and his sycophants were foisting on parents and children,” Izumi said.

California politicians need to recognize the parent revolution and heed Izumi’s and Wu’s recommendations and warnings.

As California school boards across the state shift their focus following this election, they also must work with the California Legislature to ensure that families have more choices, greater safety, and the assurance that their tax dollars are spent wisely, as Izumi recommends.