https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/the_truth_about_parental_rights_legislation.html
Considering how egregiously parents’ rights have been trampled in recent years, federal parental rights legislation recently reintroduced in Congress sounds promising, but its premise is dangerous. In fact, it could result in eroding parents’ God-given rights to direct the upbringing of their children.
The precedent for parental rights legislation was initiated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose bill was dubbed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. A noteworthy feature of the DeSantis law is that it prohibits sexuality education in kindergarten through third grade (five through nine-year-olds). It is hard to believe that we need a law to prohibit sexuality education for children who, at these young ages, aren’t even thinking about sexuality, but nonetheless it is necessary.
Governor DeSantis has done more for protecting children and our country’s freedom than any governor I have observed in my lifetime. He has been right on education policy on many fronts and continues to take the lead on common sense education policy. But the reality is that parental rights are determined by our Creator, not the government. Despite such good intentions from leaders like DeSantis, any parental rights legislation is flawed at its inception, suggesting parents’ rights are determined by government rather than the fundamental, inalienable rights of parents afforded by their Creator.
Prominent conservative legal scholar Joanna Martin, JD, recently published an article titled “A Massive Transfer of Power Over Children from Parents to Governments” where she discusses similar concerns with parental rights legislation. She writes specifically about the bill passed by the North Carolina Senate, saying, “…what SB 49 does is to transfer power over children from parents to governments. Parents’ ‘rights’ consist of the privilege of being notified of decisions made respecting their children by governments; and they are granted certain rights to challenge some of the decisions.”