{"id":49794,"date":"2022-01-30T09:28:43","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=49794"},"modified":"2022-01-30T09:28:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T14:28:45","slug":"parents-dont-have-and-shouldnt-have-the-only-voice-in-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=49794","title":{"rendered":"Parents don’t have \u2014 and shouldn’t have \u2014 the only voice in public education"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I hate to break it to you, but parents don\u2019t \u2014 and shouldn\u2019t \u2014 get the last word when it comes to public education.<\/p>\n

Should parents have some say? Sure, and they do (arguably an outsized voice already), but they are far from the only constituency school districts and school boards have to balance to truly represent the greater community.<\/p>\n

The needs of students \u2014 not always the same as the demands of parents \u2014 the needs of teachers and staff and the needs of the greater community, including the many people who do not have kids in public schools all have to be part of the equation. That\u2019s why school board members represent the entire community, not just parents.<\/p>\n

And to be blunt: just because you read something on Facebook, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re an expert in public health or schools curriculum. Also, don\u2019t assume a majority of your fellow parents \u2014 let alone the larger community \u2014 agree with you, because truthfully, they probably don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

As an example: some foaming at the mouth parents demand both in-person education and no mask mandates in schools.<\/p>\n

Great. I\u2019m sure that Joe Rogan or some twit on Fox News explained to you how this is your right \u2014 it\u2019s not. It is also as realistic as repealing the law of gravity.<\/p>\n

Keep schools open, but without masks?<\/p>\n

Sure. Of course, you\u2019ll quickly run out of teachers, support staff and bus drivers (all of which are already in short supply), as they get sick. Masks work and have for more than a century \u2014 and despite insane claims, they don\u2019t limit oxygen or store CO, otherwise we\u2019d have a lot of passed out or dead healthcare workers (we don\u2019t). And kids, unlike their parents, are pretty cool with wearing the masks when asked to do so.<\/p>\n

Without masks, a lot more teachers and staff will get COVID and have to stay home.<\/p>\n

No staff, no in-person (or maybe even virtual) school. Regardless of your \u201cbeliefs,\u201d school administrators can\u2019t just snap their fingers and conjure more staff.<\/p>\n

Also, what happens when immunocompromised Johnny catches COVID in school and dies and his family sues the school district for failing to maintain a safe environment? Or a teacher suffers long-term issues from COVID and sues? Liability insurance isn\u2019t going to pay \u2014 and even if the district wins ultimately, litigation is really expensive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be honest, I\u2019d prefer my property taxes (which I pay in three school districts right now \u2014 two in Chester County) not go up because you\u2019re an entitled, ignorant ass.<\/p>\n

Masks aren\u2019t a forever thing \u2014 and if cases continue to plummet as they have in Chester County (cases dropped by nearly half this past week) \u2014 it may make sense to stop mandating them sometime after Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And as for the folks who claim masks do psychological damage, I\u2019m curious about their stance on active shooter drills \u2014 which are a hell of lot more frightening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then we get to politically-motivated and asinine arguments about curriculum and book banning.<\/p>\n

We literally have parents \u2013 a small, ignorant minority \u2014 attempting to dictate curriculum and ban books like \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d and \u201cMaus.\u201d<\/p>\n

This tyranny of the minority needs to end.<\/p>\n

If you want complete control over what your kids learns or doesn\u2019t, home school them. You don\u2019t get to dictate what gets taught in public schools because \u201cyou don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You probably aren\u2019t an expert in curriculum \u2014 unlike your local school district, which has multiple literal experts with advanced degrees who help make these decisions with your school board.<\/p>\n

Just because you saw something on Fox News, or heard the local GOP chairman make laughably false claims about Critical Race Theory being taught in Chester County schools, it doesn\u2019t make it true. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

You know what is being taught? The history of racism \u2014 and those who fought against it \u2014 in our county. The lessons, including a focus on the local history of the Underground Railroad and Bayard Rustin, are valuable and important. They teach important lessons about wronging rights and fighting for what is right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That the Chester County GOP continues to make false claims \u2014 outright lies \u2014 about critical race theory being taught in public schools is pathetic. They are a social cancer, killing our schools and social discourse.<\/p>\n

If America\u2019s history of racial and sexual discrimination makes you uncomfortable, so be it. You should be \u2014 our history is uncomfortable and far from perfect. It\u2019s clear, more than ever, we really need to learn from it.<\/p>\n

Aside from being poor public policy, wildly obnoxious and short-sighted, all of this stupidity is causing a problem: we\u2019re running out of teachers.<\/p>\n

Hell, who doesn\u2019t want lousy pay, long hours (and the need to pay for school supplies for students out of their own pockets)? Add into it helicopter parents \u2014 and now, states offering \u201ccall-in\u201d lines to report teachers who might stray into teaching something meaningful.<\/p>\n

Apparently, lots of people don\u2019t want to do this anymore. Shocking, right? No one wants to work for someone who treats them poorly and doesn\u2019t respect them \u2014 and that describes way too many parents act these days.<\/p>\n

As in, we\u2019re already facing something of a teacher shortage \u2014 give it five years and it will be critical. Salaries will skyrocket \u2014 and so will class size, thanks to the Act 1 limits on property tax increases.<\/p>\n

So, when you wonder why your property tax has gone up at the maximum rate every year, don\u2019t blame your local school board. When your kid has 40 or more kids in their class, don’t blame the school board or administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blame your local GOP candidates and officials \u2014 they\u2019re either knowingly lying or just plain ignorant in causing this mess.<\/p>\n

And if you can\u2019t figure that out, maybe it is you that needs some education.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa I hate to break it to you, but parents don\u2019t \u2014 and shouldn\u2019t \u2014 get the last word when it comes to public education. Should parents have some say? Sure, and they do (arguably an outsized voice already), but they are far from the only constituency school districts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14322,29,1189,13615,1027,7426,77,862],"class_list":["post-49794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-book-banning","tag-chester-county","tag-chester-county-gop","tag-covid","tag-education","tag-featured","tag-parents","tag-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49795,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49794\/revisions\/49795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}