It’s true that becoming a parent can bring out the most intense feelings of protection for a child. Being an educator can too. This is why my dual experience gives me a different perspective on schools at times, and why I know that in a public school community, the rights of other people’s children matter too.
You see, I consciously choose to remain independent of the concept of “parental choice,” and instead focus on all students’ rights to a safe, healthy, well-rounded, and fully-funded education.
I believe the Fredon Township Committee should stay independent on the topic too. Fredon and Kittatinny school boards continue to work on solutions that make the majority of parents with different perspectives feel comfortable in today’s academic climate and they shouldn't have roadblocks in their way such as Fredon Township’s resolution that attempts to get the ball rolling for a Parental Bill of Rights.
Below are my personal reasons for remaining independent on the issue and the direction I believe we should go as a community instead.
1. I choose and want my child to learn the standards - current, new, health, history, etc. - and am not granting approval to the Township Committee to work to take these educational opportunities away from my child or decide what is appropriate for my child to learn. Right now, I can choose to have my child learn the standards and other parents can choose to not have their children learn them by opting-out of the curriculum and receiving a different lesson instead. That is a fair solution that meets the very definition of parental choice.
2. I am supportive of parents who advocate for their own children in a civil manner. My husband and I already do. We vote for the Board of Education to represent us in educational matters as a proxy, but we do not give approval for any other parent or the Township Committee to represent what our childrens’ educational needs or family’s values should be.
3. I am still very unclear what parental choices we don’t already have. I have seen draft Parental Bill of Rights from other areas and both Fredon and Kittatinny schools meet so many of the basic tenets already.
Budgets, curriculums, and policies are posted for all to read.
Board meetings and members are open to input.
Parents can ask for alternate assignments for different topics, including those in health, history, and evolution.
Parents can also homeschool and send children to private school.
4. I choose to send my children to public school. I trust the experts in education along with school counselors, social workers, nurses, county healthcare advisors, teachers, and administrators. They have background checks, certifications, and constant training and I know they are much better prepared to implement curriculum, communicate home, and lobby for my child’s best interests than the Township Committee or other parents who are strangers to my child and do not have experience in health or education.
5. One parent’s choice can jeopardize the educational opportunities and health of other people’s children as well as the health of staff members. This is why schools must have higher levels of oversight and regulation than the Township can provide at the local level.
6. Students’ rights come first to me - even over parental rights. They deserve a safe, healthy, well-rounded, and fully-funded education and when schools go against mandates, there are consequences and sometimes they are financial. More importantly, parents are not always as involved, loving, or understanding as we so desperately want to believe and their underrepresented children have rights that we have no business infringing upon either.
7. Those in education, social services, and healthcare are regulated and know more about the modern needs of students, especially our LBGTQ+ youth community, and work hard to provide the curriculum and resources to help keep them physically and mentally healthy. After those needs are met, students are actually able to learn reading and math.
The harsh reality is that Fredon Elementary has 186 students in a state of 1.2 million public school students. I can empathize with parents who are upset about the lack of choices they feel they’ve had over the last few years, but protesting against Fredon School and demanding parental rights that aren’t clearly defined is not the best use of anyone’s time. It‘s like entering friendly fire when the real political battle you want to fight is in Trenton.
If you really want political change, I urge you to go to the NJ State BOE with specific requests - protest there, write letters there, call there, have meetings there, and motivate others to go there too.
I encourage anyone to reach out in a spirit of collaboration and ask Fredon BOE members what input you can have on curriculum implementation, who they know at the state level to help you speak up for or against mandates, and what time you can have of theirs to understand complicated issues in education.
I am confident that partnering with your Fredon neighbors on the School Boards in the area and protesting at the state level instead will serve your time and efforts better.
The masks are off in school, so let’s take our boxing gloves off and focus on working together to catch these students up academically too.
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