Parents' Rights, School Choice, Anti-Racism Will Grab Headlines in '24

A presidential election year is fast approaching, meaning social media channels and news feeds already awash with negativity about education-related issues will only become more treacherous places for people trying to discern what's true.

Ed Post and other reputable organizations specializing in education news, commentary, and informed advocacy represent places where people can learn about issues that impact their communities.

With that challenge in mind, here are some education topics we have our eyes on in 2024.

Parents' Rights

The term "culture war" is tossed around cavalierly these days, but if you go with that analogy, one of the fiercest areas of contention is how much influence parents should have in their child’s school.  

The parents’ rights movement has picked up a lot of momentum in the past couple of years, with the loudest protests coming from conservatives who view “woke culture” as a virus infecting their students, among other accusations of indoctrination.

The absurdity of some of the accusations can be comical at times, but the potential impact on education is not a laughing matter. That’s why a good place to start is that parents are already guaranteed many rights when interacting with a public school district.

So, what does it mean that some parents are clamoring for more influence when they can monitor a school’s curriculum, advocate for change, and even directly observe a classroom?

Part of the problem is communication between schools and parents; part of it is the availability of parents to be proactively involved, so instead, they react after the fact, when they might be less bothered if they actively took part in decision-making. Communication is difficult, so a school must commit to a plan and be accountable for including parents as much as possible.

There are many benefits for a school when parents are actively engaged. When discussing parents' rights is measured and productive, it can lead to positive growth for everyone involved. Many parents feel disconnected from their child’s education. There’s room to address that while keeping schools free from reactionary and repressive forces.

When you listen to political debates in 2024 about this issue, you will hear hyperboles flying around like mosquitoes at sunset in the summer. Educators and advocates have to push back against overreach while leaving some oxygen in the room for the conversations we should have about the issue. 

School Choice

In many ways, the school choice issue is a branch of parents’ rights, but it occupies plenty of real estate in hearts and minds as a standalone topic. It’s been an issue for many years, and its complexity makes it challenging to paint with a broad brush.

A simplified definition: “School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs—whether to a public school, private school, charter school, home school, or any other learning environment families choose.”

That sounds nice and simple. It’s not.

There are dozens of types of school-choice programs. Their effectiveness is a hotly debated topic among politicians—Democrats generally against and Republicans generally in favor—but recent polls show that as many as 70% of parents want more education options.

Detractors of school choice—with teacher unions among the most powerful— say the system doesn’t solve educational equity issues because it creates a free-for-all that weakens neighborhood public schools. Defenders argue there’s evidence that school-choice programs don’t negatively impact public school performance.

Where an individual family lives will have much to do with determining what school choice means for them. It will be up to voters to decide if one of the many options could work for their community.

Anti-Racism Education

How many people have opinions about anti-racism education based mainly on the name alone? The far-encompassing term attempts to address many issues with systemic inequities that plague education, but people who consider it to be “woke” and “indoctrination” of students to hate white people fiercely resist implementing any policy that hints at anti-racism.  

Many educators define it as “teaching through an anti-racist lens means helping students understand racism’s origins and guises, past and present, so they can act to disrupt White supremacy.”

A Pew Research survey from this June is one of many data points that show a partisan divide about how educators should address America’s history with racism and the effects of bias in today’s society. Sixty-six of respondents who identified as Republican said they prefer their children learn that slavery is part of the country’s history but think its legacy does not affect black people today. As you might guess, parents who identify as Democrats felt very differently.

Such differences of opinion make anti-racism education a prime target for the focus of politicians in 2024. It’s very likely that “woke,” Diversity Equity and Inclusion, anti-racism education, and Critical Race Theory will be used interchangeably by people who want to lump them all together as one issue.

Voters must understand the difference between fear-mongering and what’s happening in classrooms and school board meetings. Only through informed conversations can people create impactful, lasting change.