After a sweeping victory in November’s elections with broad support from Americans, President-elect Donald Trump, his Department of Education and incoming Education Secretary Linda McMahon will have an overwhelming mandate to fix America’s broken K-12 education system.
More specifically, they have a mandate to eliminate radical gender ideology in our nation’s schools, though they will assuredly face resistance from notorious bad actors.
A recent poll from Parents Defending Education (PDE) found that 75% of parents “oppose teachers, counselors, school nurses, classroom aides, coaches or administration withholding information about a child’s gender identity from parents.” This includes 88% of Republican parents, 72% of independent parents, and 58% of Democratic parents.
The most troubling and potentially dangerous facet of gender ideology in schools is the facilitation of a child’s gender transition behind the backs of parents. PDE has found that nearly 21,000 schools with more than 12 million students have policies that do exactly this — keep the preferred gender identity of students at school hidden from their parents if that is what the minor child wants. Most of these schools have also begun to impose gender ideology in the curricula — often because state standards require it — to normalize these pseudoscientific and even cultish beliefs in the next generation.
While the incoming leaders of the Department of Education will have broad approval to eliminate gender ideology from America’s schools, groups that support parental rights and common sense such as Parents Defending Education and Moms for Liberty can attest that any actions intended to correct course will face unrelenting resistance from organizations with big pockets.
One such group is Gender Spectrum, which is largely responsible for the template of gender policies now used in a large swath of the nation’s schools. The organization offers training for teachers that includes lessons claiming “sex isn’t binary” and that children as young as four can identify as transgender. The group also offers lessons for students that include quizzes about how gender is supposedly on a spectrum.
In recent years, Gender Spectrum offered online chatrooms for children as young as 10 who identified as “trans” or “non-binary.” Any effort to clean up America’s schools must begin with ensuring no public school uses any material like this.
Then there is the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The organization promotes gender ideology to young children. Schools in states as diverse as New Hampshire, Missouri, Colorado and Florida were influenced by GLSEN in the past few years. The group promotes students starting LGBTQ clubs in school and provides training for teachers to introduce gender ideology into their curricula, starting in very early grades.
Districts such as Liberty Public Schools in Missouri and Broward County Public Schools in Florida recently embraced the organization’s beliefs. GLSEN will certainly push back against the Department of Education’s efforts.
Possibly the largest organization pushing gender ideology into America’s schools is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) under the banner of “Welcoming Schools.” The HRC has attempted to radically transform schools into adopting gender ideology through training, providing lesson plans, and promoting a “Schools in Transition” guide that advises schools not to involve parents when their children identify as transgender.
The HRC has used lawfare to push back against common-sense policies, stopping them altogether or stalling them until an administration friendlier to their cause gains power.
The HRC has previously sued states that passed laws prohibiting males from using women’s restrooms and from participating in women’s sports. The incoming Education Department leadership will likely need to prepare for a storm of lawsuits from the HRC.
While parents may disagree with schools adopting radical gender ideology and forcing it on their children, several powerful organizations will fight to ensure this remains the status quo. Linda McMahon and her team at the Department of Education will have their hands full dealing with the resistance they are about to face. But they have a mandate from voters to act, and they must use it to rescue America’s children from this sinister ideology.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Parents Defending Education.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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