RUTHFULLY YOURS

As a mother of two, I’m well acquainted with the tradition of back-to-school shopping. But this time, preparations look different for many families. From invasive COVID-19 vaccine requirements and woke curricular materials to surging costs for school supplies, back-to-school season has parents peeved — and for good reason.

From the beginning, President Joe Biden and Democrats have put special interest groups over students. The Biden administration slow-walked school reopenings and prioritized teachers unions’ demands over parents’ needs, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky meeting with families just once while granting “instant access” to union bosses. In fact, Walensky even admitted that she changed the CDC’s school reopening guidance to give teachers unions “what they need.” Emails show she went so far as to recommend that schools keep their doors shut — just because the unions said so.

Children paid the price. Studies show students who learned remotely for the majority of the 2020-2021 school year “on average … lost the equivalent of about 50% of a typical school year’s math learning during that time.” The fallout was especially dramatic for low-income, black, and Latino students, leading to “the largest increase in educational inequity in a generation.”

Now, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have handed families in public, charter, and private schools an ultimatum: Get the COVID-19 vaccine or be expelled. This mandate disproportionately affects minority families. Roughly 40% of black school-age children in Washington, D.C., are unvaccinated, which means they could be banned from returning to school in person. The learning losses they will suffer as a result will have long-term consequences.

Even when students are in the classroom, they’re being bombarded with woke propaganda and radical gender ideology. In California, the San Diego Unified School District is promoting K-12 lesson plans that encourage children to explore “gender identities,” such as “non-binary,” “pansexual,” and “two-spirit.” In Washington, D.C., schools, children as young as 4 years old are being taught to identify “racist” family members and check their own “white privilege.” And in more than 4,500 classrooms all over the country, instructors are teaching the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” a discredited left-wing alternate history that claims the United States is inherently and irredeemably racist, as fact.

Parents who speak out at school board meetings have little recourse; when they do, they risk becoming targets of an FBI investigation, thanks to Attorney General Merrick Garland. To make matters worse, the Biden administration is spending millions of dollars from the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion spending spree on “anti-racist” and “social activism” indoctrination of children.

While the White House splurges on the taxpayers’ dime, parents are struggling to provide their children with the school supplies they need. With inflation at a 40-year high , everything is more expensive — including basics such as school supplies and uniforms. Sixty percent of parents report spending more on school supplies this year thanks to surging costs, spending an average of $661 per student, up 8% from 2021 and 27% from 2019. Even school districts are seeing dramatically higher costs for food, transportation, and school goods.

On the other hand, Republicans are championing parental rights and educational opportunity for every student. Over the 2020-2021 school year, 19 of the top 20 states with the highest percentage of in-person student learning were led by Republican governors. It’s Republicans who have fought against critical race theory and leftist efforts to replace parents with the state.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt disciplined two Democrat-dominated school districts for failing to remove CRT from their curricula. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill protecting parental rights in education.

Republicans have also led the charge for school choice expansion. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin increased funding for educational options, strengthened parents’ rights over their child’s learning, and banned CRT from being taught in his state. And in the Grand Canyon State, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed the most expansive school choice law in the nation.

As a mother, I understand how insulting it is to co-parent with the government. I’ve seen the strain that inflation is putting on family budgets. And I know I’m not alone. All over the country, parents are protesting at school board meetings, recalling rogue school board members, and running for office themselves. If Democrats think these parents aren’t going to show up at the polls on Election Day this November, they’re in for a surprise. Democrats are woke. Parents are awake.