Week in Review: Children Don’t Belong to the Government

November 13, 2021

Children don’t belong to the government. But far too often, public education bureaucrats insist on hiding from parents what their children are learning in taxpayer-funded schools.

How can parents hold the education establishment accountable? By demanding access to the materials teachers will use in the classroom, says former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a leading voice on empowering parents to fight Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other woke doctrines that have made their way into classroom curricula.

“Because wokeness is the left’s religion, ‘banning’ critical race theory or the 1619 Project won’t fix the problem. The liberal education establishment will simply rename, rebrand, or repackage these insidious ideas to get around so-called bans,” DeVos writes in an op-ed for Fox News, supporting Goldwater’s approach to academic transparency efforts. “Instead, we must equip parents themselves with the tools to hold schools accountable for their programming decisions—to be able to see what is being taught and differentiate between activist and academically oriented schools before they have to make an enrollment decision.”

The Goldwater Institute is leading the fight to give parents a greater say in their kids’ education. Our Academic Transparency Act would help accomplish this goal by requiring public schools to post on their website all learning materials and activities used for student instruction. Parents could then evaluate what they see and make an informed choice about how and where their children will be educated.

You can read DeVos’ full op-ed at FoxNews.com.

American Freedom Network – 100 Cases and Growing

It’s an incredible milestone: Goldwater’s pro-bono American Freedom Network (AFN) of attorneys has taken on its one-hundredth case, a landmark in the Institute’s continuously growing effort to defend freedom in all 50 states.

A Massachusetts grandmother whose car was seized by the government and kept for six years, even though she was never charged with a crime. A college journalism student who was fired from her job as student radio station manager and harassed by college staff and students, all for exercising her freedom of speech. A Rhode Island mom who dared to ask what her kindergarten-age daughter would be taught in public school, and was stonewalled, sued, and billed $74,000 by education bureaucrats in response.

Those are just a few of the people whose rights AFN has successfully defended since its founding in 2017. Individual rights are violated in countless ways across the country every day, and that’s why AFN’s roughly 400 attorneys in every state have taken on the responsibility of fighting for fundamental freedoms and ensuring government has to answer for its actions, often on behalf of those without the resources to do it on their own.

For more about AFN’s milestone, you can click here. And if you are an attorney interested in protecting liberty, you can visit this page to learn more about AFN’s mission and how to get involved.

Support Veterans with Action, Not Just Words

Our military veterans have made enormous sacrifices for our freedoms, and we ought to show our gratitude not just with our words, but with our actions too, wrote Goldwater Institute Director National Litigation Jon Riches, a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves, on Veterans Day.

“If not for the sacrifices of these men and women, the forces of statism would have conquered long ago. But because our veterans raised their hands, and have fought here and abroad, America remains the greatest force for liberty and prosperity the world has ever known,” Riches writes.

One way to show our gratitude is by implementing universal recognition of occupational licenses. “The Goldwater Institute has worked to make it easier for military spouses to continue working in their careers when they move across state lines. Military families are frequently on the move, and we must recognize the challenges that that mobile life can pose and provide the adaptability that these families need,” Riches says.

Read the full post at In Defense of Liberty. And you can learn more about the work Goldwater is doing for our military veterans here.

Join Us – Liberty Never Looked So Kid-Friendly!

At public schools across the nation, children are being indoctrinated with the teachings of radical creeds like Critical Race Theory. They’re being told that the American Dream is a lie, that America was built on racism, and that they should judge others based on skin color rather than character.

But there’s a better way for kids to learn more about history and freedom. Join us December 7 at 1:00 p.m. MST, as Goldwater Executive Vice President Christina Sandefur hosts a special virtual chat with Connor Boyack, author of the Tuttle Twins children’s book series, in which 11-year-old Ethan and Emily take part in fun and amazing adventures thanks to their Cuban grandmother and her time-traveling wheelchair. Boyack and Sandefur will discuss the ideas behind these books and how the series became an international sensation.

Registration for this online event is free, and comes with a 40% off coupon for the entire 12-book Tuttle Twins series!

You can learn more and register to attend the webinar by clicking here.