Parents must have a say in their children’s upbringing, witnesses testified before the House Committee on Education on Feb. 9 in Congress, and teachers’ unions must be held accountable for rejecting transparency and teaching students gender ideology.
“Unfortunately, too many forces within the education system insist on prioritizing the promotion of ideologies over academic instruction,” Virginia Gentles, director of the Independent Women’s Forum’s Education Freedom Center (EFC), told the hearing.
“Federal, state, and local policies that embrace and enforce gender and other divisive ideologies in the K-12 education system pressure students to define themselves by their racial, sexual, and gender identity,” she added.
According to Gentles’s website, the EFC informs parents about educational options for their children and helps them pick the best fit. The Independent Women’s Forum is a non-profit that educates women on policy issues that affect them and their families.
Most parents do not want educators to teach their children that they could have been born in the wrong body, she said, or that doctors could be incorrect in defining a newborn’s gender.
Exposing girls with underlying mental health difficulties to new gender identities as a solution to their emotional distress could cause great harm, Gentles said.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) asked if keeping secret any gender doubts children express in school creates a divide between them and their parents.
Gentles responded that most of the time, instructors tell children that if their parents question their gender identity or the ideology being taught, “their parent is a bigot ... is hateful ... and must want them dead,” adding that “there’s absolutely a wedge that’s been being driven.”
“Parents want and deserve power over their children’s education, but education bureaucrats and unions hold all the power in areas without education freedom,” she said.
Moreover, Gentles explained parents send their children to public schools with the expectation the institution will make every decision with parental involvement.
The act requires schools to share their curriculum, study materials, and state academic standards with parents, allowing them to interact with local education boards and instructors. It also requires transparency regarding the school’s budget and expenditures, the right to their child’s privacy, and, if applicable, being informed on violent conduct at school.
“Parents, students, and educators need legislators to be more than just caring and courageous,” Gentles told lawmakers.
“We need you to hold the K-12 cartel accountable for the learning loss crisis exacerbated by COVID-era policies; determine how states and districts spent the $190 billion in ‘emergency’ federal funding; ensure that the new mental health funding truly helps students, rather than lines the pockets of activists,” she continued.
Private and corporate donors would provide funds to state non-profit scholarship-granting organizations, she explained; the Department of Education would not be involved, and donors would receive non-refundable federal tax credits.
However, she received opposition from Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), who argued that “voucher programs of all types, whether they’re traditional vouchers, education savings accounts, or tax credit scholarships, undermine the effectiveness of public education.”
Improving America’s Higher Education System and Workforce
Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, told the hearing, “The single most important step Congress can take in helping address our nation’s skill shortage is to immediately authorize the use of Pell Grants for workforce programs.”He said that adopting the Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning (PELL) Act would significantly address the country’s educational crisis. The PELL Act would extend the Pell Grant to skills-based programs that provide high-quality credentials that students and the economy need.
“Education is the antidote to nearly every single issue we face as a nation,” Sullivan said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, on the witness panel, said he suggested a scholarship to help 2024 graduates continue post-secondary education and started the “Zero Textbook Challenge,” which pushes Colorado institutions to utilize free educational materials.
“I also want to applaud the Biden Administration’s efforts to pause student loan payments during the pandemic, provide widespread debt relief, and continue to increase Pell Grant funding,” the Democrat governor said.
WIOA became law in 2014. It supports job seekers in finding employment, education, training, and support services and connects companies with qualified people.
“The crippling level of student debt in this country is the symptom of a larger problem: Too many learning experiences are not designed to be affordable,” Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University (WGU), said.
WGU is a non-profit, online university founded by bipartisan governors 26 years ago.
Congress should clarify the education system’s purpose and direction by ensuring accountability for how credits should be used, Pulsipher said. Creating policies pushing institutions to improve credentials’ relevancy, he added, and prioritizing cost-cutting could help develop an education system that works for everyone.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) chaired the hearing.
