Opinion: Progressives launch effort to block popular parental rights education law

Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center says parents have one question for local school officials about the Parental Rights law, ‘Are you helping my family, or are you part of the problem?’

Liv Finne
Washington Policy Center

On June 6th, Washington’s new Parental Bill of Rights law went into effect. This popular law is a result of direct democracy. It was presented to the state legislature in January by over 454,000 citizens who signed Initiative 2081.

Lawmakers could hardly ignore such a grassroots movement, and the measure garnered huge bi-partisan majorities – passing in the Senate by acclamation and being approved in the House by a vote of 82 to 15. Even far left-wing members like Sen. Jaimie Pedersen and Rep. Tomiko-Santos supported it.

As a staunch defender of the status quo Gov. Jay Inslee may not like the measure, but his opinion doesn’t matter. Citizen initiatives become law without the governor’s signature.

Yet some members of the establishment are angry at the idea of protecting parent rights in public education. Kathleen Taylor, the Executive Director of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, apparently doesn’t think “civil liberties” should extend to parents.

She has now filed a lawsuit to block the new law. Members of the South Whidbey School board are also opposing parents, using District funds to join as co-plaintiffs.

For details on how the law helps families stay engaged and supportive of school children see my Legislative Memo analysis of Initiative 2081. The law is in response to recent incidents of school officials lying to parents and hiding sensitive information about their children.

In early June ACLU lawyers asked a King County court to strike down the Parental Rights law because, according to the ACLU, schools respecting parental rights would “cause irreparable damage.” That motion was defeated in a June 4th court ruling. A second hearing is set for later this month.

In a separate effort, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is directing school officials to ignore the law. In contrast, on May 8th school board members in Kennewick adopted Resolution 3211 to implement the law and keep parents informed.

As every loving parent knows, it’s hard enough to raise children responsibly without the local public school engaging in deception and lying. Despite Superintendent Reykdal’s hurtful directive, parents really only have one question for local school officials about the Parental Rights law, “Are you helping my family, or are you part of the problem?”

Liv Finne is the director of the Center for Education at the Washington Policy Center.