Unleashing Parent Power in Education

Last night I had the opportunity to give a virtual talk sponsored by the Kentucky chapter of Americans for Prosperity on the topic of "Unleashing Parent Power in Education." The talk itself isn't available to share, but I wanted to briefly summarize my comments, which I used as a springboard to introduce several parent-led education reform initiatives. My goal was to provide an analysis of the ways in which the American system of education tends to disempower many parents, and to share some ideas about how we might reverse that pattern and give parents far more influence and voice in the education of their own children.

The COVID crisis, and especially the long-term shuttering of schools, has revealed to many ordinary parents and citizens just how inefficient our educational system is, how much it struggles to respond quickly to changing circumstances, and how it inevitably turns toward one-size-fits-all solutions. I'm not at all suggesting that teachers haven't worked hard over the last year. I certainly know how much many of them have worried over how to provide for their students' learning needs. But teachers themselves are hamstrung by the massive bureaucratic structures that make it virtually impossible for innovative and well-meaning teachers to easily adapt instructional delivery to new challenges.

This organizational recalcitrance is directly related to the fact that educational institutions function as a monopoly for most parents. While affluent families can often get some relief by buying houses in the school districts or attendance zones of their choice, most families have to take whatever educational program the local district offers them based on their zip code. But the last year has revealed how even affluent parents have little power, especially in large, unionized school districts. Despite overwhelming evidence that schools can safely open, our largest urban districts have mostly refused to consider even a hybrid learning model. Time and again we see that the interests of employees and their ideological agendas are the single biggest determinate of what happens in schools. The result is that, for all of the well-intended efforts and massive expenditures of money, the education system does not work for many families. 

What would it mean to shift some of the power and influence in education toward parents and ordinary taxpayers? First, it would mean enacting meaningful school choice measures so that every family, regardless of their income, could have more options in who educates their children and how. Currently HB 149, which encourages private donations to Education Opportunity Accounts that would help eligible families access private school options, is sitting in the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Lawmakers need to be encouraged to push this bill across the finish line and make the first meaningful dent in the monopoly power currently enjoyed by government schools. And then a host of other school choice provisions should be considered, including open district enrollment, and charter schools.

But even within the existing structures of education there is more that could be done to empower parents, including reforming Kentucky's Scho0l-Based Decision-Making Councils. Under current law, teacher members of SBMD councils outnumber parents, and non-parent citizens have no voting representation on councils at all. This means that SBDM Councils are essentially accountable to no one but the certified teachers in a school building, even though they wield sole authority over curriculum decisions and outsized influence over the hiring of school principals.

Finally, we need active, well-informed, and energized parent groups to advocate for meaningful education reform and district accountability. Every community deserves a vibrant coalition of parents and community members willing to work with educators to hold schools more accountable to parent concerns, engage in lobbying school boards and lawmakers, and ultimately organize and support candidates to run for school board seats and give the entire community as much say over what happens in schools as district employees currently enjoy. 

Happily, several such parent organizations have been organized here in Kentucky, many of them enjoying a surge of interest because of the prolonged, COVID-related school shutdowns. Last night I was able to introduce representatives from and highlight the work of the following groups:

• No Left Turn in Education. NLTE is a national organization of parents and educators assembled to resist the relentless push to impose leftist, critical theory ideology in American schools. Countless examples of this trend abound, and NLTE's Kentucky chapter will work to shine a light on how this is happening here, and how teachers, students, parents, and community members can respond.
• Kentucky Parents Network represents a coalition of parents advocating for school choice.
• Parent Power Kentucky arose from several local organizations formed to encourage schools to reopen for business. Parent Power will serve as a coalition of parental advocacy groups focused on choice, reform, supports for students with special needs, and direct advocacy to lawmakers and local boards of education.

I encourage educators and others to follow these groups on social media and offer your financial support and gifts of time and talent to help make them successful.

On a final note, I am sometimes asked why, as someone whose career is primarily in service to public education, I spend so much more time advocating for families and reform instead of the institutional interests of schools and districts. My answer is that the education establishment, directly funded by taxpayers themselves, is the most powerful lobby in state capitols, using its enormous influence to prevent meaningful reform and often keep parents disempowered. I don't want to choose sides between parents and schools, between communities and districts, because I believe that in the long run, doing what is right for students will work out to be in the best interests of educators as well, though it may mean we have to significantly change the way we do business. 

For that reason, I want to give as much encouragement and support to these parent groups as I can, and I hope others will also.