Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill on Tuesday that would protect parental rights in education, including by prohibiting schools from hiding curriculum contents from parents.

The bill, the Parents’ Bill of Rights Act, outlines eight “rights” and would allow federally funded schools to be sued if they withhold curriculum information from parents or fail to disclose what outside groups the school has signed contracts with. The bill would also require schools to switch extracurricular activities and field trips to a parental opt-in standard rather than an opt-out one.

ACTIVISTS AND GOP LAWMAKERS RALLY AT CAPITOL FOR PARENTS’ RIGHTS

The bill also requires school board meetings to be “held in public and allow for public comments” if they pertain to “curricula, safety, and other student issues.”

“America has long recognized the right of parents to direct their children’s education but we are now seeing a concerted effort by the Left to shut parents out,” Hawley said in a press release.

“Whether it’s Joe Biden’s Justice Department attempting to classify parents as ‘domestic terrorists,'” he continued, “or activists funded by dark money who seek to quietly introduce critical race theory into school curricula, education has taken a back seat to radical politics in many schools and parents are taking notice.”

“It’s time to give control back to parents, not woke bureaucrats, and empower them to start a new era of openness in education,” he said.

Parental rights in education have become a key political issue in recent months as parents nationwide organized and spoke out at school board meetings against coronavirus-related restrictions and the inclusion of critical race theory and pornography in school curricula.

In September, the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to President Joe Biden asking that the government investigate protesting parents as domestic terrorists.

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The association later apologized following widespread public backlash, but not before Attorney General Merrick Garland formed a joint FBI-DOJ task force to investigate threats against school board members.

Original Location: Josh Hawley introduces bill to protect parental rights in education

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