If you talk to any experienced and honest teacher these days, from elementary school on up, one of the first things they will tell you is how quickly gender ideology has taken hold. Virtually overnight, students began adopting fake pronouns and made-up genders.
To call this phenomenon &#8220;unnatural&#8221; would be a vast understatement. It&#8217;s obviously engineered. Teachers and school boards are pushing this nonsense on children who are far too young to know any better. The public school system has committed itself to indoctrinating children, in many cases without their parents&#8217; knowledge or consent. But after what happened yesterday at the Supreme Court, it&#8217;s very clear that accountability is finally coming for these ghouls.
After many years of spewing LGBT propaganda with total impunity, school districts will soon face major new restrictions on their ability to pollute the minds of elementary-school-age children. Based on how the justices acted during oral arguments yesterday, “Mahmoud v. Taylor” could easily turn out to be one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings of this generation.
Before we review the oral arguments, here is some background. The case began after Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in Maryland — introduced a new &#8220;gender and sexuality curriculum.&#8221; Initially, students (or their parents) could opt out of this curriculum for any reason. But after a short period of time, the school district claimed that it wasn&#8217;t feasible to continue allowing opt outs. So it&#8217;s mandatory now. To give you an idea of what exactly this curriculum entails, here&#8217;s an image from one book that children are introduced to.
<div id="attachment_911559" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911559" class="wp-image-911559 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg" alt="Screenshot: What Are Your Words?" width="680" height="446" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U-300x197.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Screenshot: What Are Your Words?</div>
This is what&#8217;s apparently known as an &#8220;LGBT storybook.&#8221; This one&#8217;s called, “What Are Your Words?” As you can see, one line of dialogue reads, “My pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is a nonprofit, reported on some other books that were included in this <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-scotus-back-parents-when-it-comes-to-lgbtq-storybooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new curriculum</a>:
<blockquote>[O]ne book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes &#8216;intersex flag,&#8217; &#8216;drag queen,&#8217; &#8216;underwear,&#8217; &#8216;leather,&#8217; and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to &#8216;make sense.&#8217; Teachers are instructed to say doctors only &#8216;guess&#8217; when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.</blockquote>
When parents of varying religious faiths — including Muslims and Christians — objected to the idea that their 5-year-olds needed to be taught about &#8220;sex work&#8221; and &#8220;gender transitioning&#8221; by Left-wing activists posing as teachers, the school district told them they had no recourse. In fact, the district slandered the parents as bigots. All these parents were seeking was the ability to opt out of this indoctrination. They didn&#8217;t even demand that the classes be removed from the curriculum. But the school district denied their request. So the parents sued.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1581-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Which brings us to yesterday&#8217;s oral arguments. I want to begin with this question from Justice Alito, because it gets to the core of the issue. Alito wants to know why the school district is so hell-bent on forcing children to read books about homosexuality, transgenderism and so on. (To be clear, that&#8217;s what the school district is doing. They&#8217;re not merely providing these books in the school library. Teachers are actively telling students to read the books as part of class.) The truthful answer to Justice Alito&#8217;s question is simple: The Left understands that, if the LGBT movement is going to survive, it needs to indoctrinate new members at a very young age.
But the school district can&#8217;t say that out loud, of course. So instead, the lawyer representing the Montgomery school district&#8217;s superintendent, a man named Alan Schoenfeld, starts talking in circles about how impossible it would be, at a practical level, for the school district to allow students to opt out of this curriculum. But nothing he says actually makes sense. It gets so bad that, at the end of his rambling non-answer, Justice Kavanaugh chimes in to confirm that indeed, no one has any idea what the hell this guy is talking about. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 alito, whats the big deal" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q118nmS1g2s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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As best I can tell, the lawyer for the school district is claiming that, because students might talk among themselves about certain LGBT books that are discussed in this curriculum, it&#8217;s therefore impossible to allow students to opt out of this kind of curriculum. In other words, whether or not students opt out, there&#8217;s a chance that they&#8217;ll hear about the materials that are discussed in these gay adventure books.
But this ignores a couple of obvious points.The big one is that, when a teacher is communicating a lesson to a class, it has a very different effect, as compared to one student talking to another student about a book during recess or whatever. The teacher is in a position of authority. It&#8217;s much easier for a 5-year-old to discount something another 5-year-old says, than it is to discount the wisdom of a 40-year-old teacher he&#8217;s told to trust. If this is an argument for anything, it&#8217;s an argument for not having these materials in the school to begin with. Which of course is the correct answer. But either way, it is not an argument against allowing parents to opt out.
The lawyer for the school district knows this but he can&#8217;t admit it. So he ends up confusing everyone in the room with a bunch of doublespeak. This kept happening throughout the oral arguments. Listen to this moment where Justice Gorsuch points out that, in Montgomery County, teachers are told to actively correct students who dare to suggest that men can&#8217;t become women. Gorsuch then asks the lawyer for Montgomery County whether this could constitute &#8220;coercion.&#8221; The obvious answer is yes. But instead of saying that, here&#8217;s the gibberish that the attorney comes back with:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 gorsuch, coercion, correcting himself" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x3sWOLDR4Q0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Justice Gorsuch gives an example where a student says, &#8220;a boy can&#8217;t be a girl.&#8221; And then the lawyer states that it&#8217;s not &#8220;coercive,&#8221; in any way, for the teacher to correct the student&#8217;s comment, in front of the entire class. He then changes his mind and says the opposite.
Even when he&#8217;s not contradicting himself, the school district&#8217;s lawyer managed to make a mockery of the entire case. 
Here&#8217;s his opening statement, for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 beginning with mr shonfeld" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkw27dw9T5g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, according to this attorney for the school district, there&#8217;s no difference between teaching elementary-school students about wars, and teaching them that boys can become girls. Telling students about the War of 1812 is just like telling them that it&#8217;s totally reasonable to chemically castrate minors.
One of the ways we know this isn&#8217;t true, aside from using basic common sense, is that there&#8217;s no army of parents demanding that schools stop teaching students about wars. That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s understood that teaching students about wars is not a general endorsement of violence. Additionally, everyone agrees that history is important and useful because it&#8217;s grounded in reality. On the other hand, gender ideology is just that — ideological.
This lawyer was not the only person to embarrass himself yesterday. That&#8217;s a given. After all, Ketanji Brown Jackson was also in attendance at the hearing. And as you&#8217;d expect, she did not disappoint. Single-handedly, she dropped the collective IQ in the room by about 10 points, just by opening her mouth. And of course, she opened her mouth on the side of indoctrinating children, because she takes the Left&#8217;s position on every issue. Behold, Ketanji Brown Jackson&#8217;s argument in favor of mandatory indoctrination in public schools:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 can just go to private school" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y-FJrhGbwrw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, you can homeschool, says Ketanji Brown Jackson. You can pay for an expensive private school. Therefore, there&#8217;s no &#8220;burden&#8221; on these parents, apparently. It&#8217;s not a &#8220;burden&#8221; to have to pay more money, and change your child&#8217;s school, because Montgomery County decided to teach LGBT propaganda. And then the lawyer representing the parents responds, and points out that she&#8217;s completely wrong, and many other cases demonstrate why she&#8217;s wrong. And then she goes quiet and they move on.
Here’s one more clip from these arguments, involving Justice Alito questioning the school board&#8217;s lawyer. He follows up on this logic, about how the parents can supposedly just go to a private school. He begins by talking from the perspective of one of these parents:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 alito, too bad" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hgRo17KtvU8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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This is what it looks like in the Supreme Court when &#8220;sparks fly,&#8221; so to speak. Alito is making his disdain for the school district&#8217;s argument extremely clear, which is exactly what he should do. They&#8217;re trying to force-feed gender ideology to children, and instead of owning it, they&#8217;re lying and telling the parents to pay more money to find a private school that won&#8217;t interfere with their religious liberties. But the Constitution doesn&#8217;t work that way. And it appears the Montgomery County school district, and school districts all over the country, are about to discover that.
This is not a close case. That&#8217;s why even the far-Left outlet Vox <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250422191725/https://www.vox.com/scotus/409921/supreme-court-dont-say-gay-mahmoud-taylor">reported</a>: 
<blockquote>The Supreme Court’s &#8216;Don’t Say Gay&#8217; argument went disastrously for public schools.</blockquote>
At the moment, the most likely outcome is that, when very young children are involved, parents will retain the right to opt out of curriculums involving gender ideology, or any other extreme ideology that conflicts with their established religion. Everyone can see this coming.
And just to underscore that, yesterday Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the largest teachers&#8217; unions in the country, went on Fox News. And she admitted, right away, that she wouldn&#8217;t read these books in the classroom. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Randi" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/luc0jWbW_HA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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We all know that Randi Weingarten isn&#8217;t saying this because she believes it. She&#8217;s maybe the most calculating political operative in the country, after Nancy Pelosi. But Weingarten understands when the Left is overplaying its hand. She knows that they&#8217;re on the cusp of yet another crushing defeat in their efforts to indoctrinate children, and she&#8217;s trying to soften that blow when it inevitably comes.
Unfortunately for Weingarten, the truth is, there&#8217;s no way to accomplish that. Gender ideology and LGBT activists, as we&#8217;ve discussed many times, are now extremely unpopular. They have alienated the entire country, to the point that they may have cost Democrats the last election. The only way an ideology like this can survive is by targeting children before they&#8217;re able to develop their cognitive abilities. That&#8217;s their only viable play. And in a few short months, after this case is inevitably decided against the public school system of Montgomery County, it&#8217;ll be much, much harder for these people to accomplish that.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Parental Rights Regarding LGBTQ Books In Schools

The Lawyers Promoting Child Indoctrination To SCOTUS Were Absolutely Humiliated

Books

Brett Kavanaugh

Children's Books

Education

Elementary Schools

gender ideology

Ketanji Brown Jackson

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Neil Gorsuch

Opinion

Parents rights

Samuel Alito

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Virginia

Gov. Brad Little (R) came through for the families of Idaho last Thursday morning by signing House Bill 93, the <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">Parental Choice Tax Credit bill</a>, into law shortly before the 11:46 a.m. deadline. Idaho now has a school choice program for the first time in the state’s history.
The bill enacts a $50 million private school choice tax credit program with all schoolchildren statewide eligible. Idaho becomes the 14th state in the nation to enact universal (or near-universal) school choice, joining Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
Upon signing the bill, Gov. Little <a href="https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-signs-house-bill-93-creating-the-parental-choice-tax-credit-program/">declared</a>, “With the passage of the $50 million Parental Choice Tax Credit program, Idaho boasts even more abundant schooling options for Idaho students and families.”
Early in February, the state House passed the bill by a vote of <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">42-28</a>, providing hope to parents that Idaho may finally see school choice become a reality. The longtime Republican-controlled state had been void of any form of private school choice, resembling its Democratic-controlled West Coast neighbors of Washington, Oregon, and California.
On February 16, President Donald Trump weighed in with strong support by <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114015581630558522">posting</a> on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Governor Brad Little, and Idaho Legislators, who are fighting to bring School Choice to their beautiful State. $50 Million Dollars to empower parents to provide the very best Education for their child – GREAT news for Idaho families. This Bill, which has my Complete and Total Support, MUST PASS!”
Then, on February 19, the Idaho Senate voted <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">20-15</a> in favor of the bill, which sent it to the Governor’s desk for signature.
Yet, in uncanny measure for a red state governor, who already had the votes from the legislature and public support from the President of the United States, Gov. Little signaled it was not a given that he would sign the bill.
Before the bill reached his desk on February 21, Gov. Little’s Office had quickly placed an automatic voice message for all incoming calls. The message instructed callers to press one if the call relates to House Bill 93. From there, the voice recording stated that the Governor’s Office was only receiving calls from Idaho residents and only one call per household. It continued, “If you would like Gov. Little to sign House Bill 93, please press one. If you would like Gov. Little to veto House Bill 93, please press two.”
Within a few days of the bill reaching the governor, Press Secretary Joan Varsek <a href="https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/02/thousands-of-phone-calls-flood-governors-desk-as-school-choice-bill-awaits-his-decision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the Governor’s office received “thousands of calls, emails, and voicemails on both sides in reference to H.B. 93.”
On Monday, the specific number of responses was released, which totaled <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/state-policy/governors-office-received-more-than-32k-requests-to-veto-house-bill-93/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">37,457</a>. Only 13.6% of those who reached out were in support of the governor signing the bill, while 86.4% were in opposition.
Yet, these last-minute cries for a veto were far from an accurate reflection of Idahoans’ support of school choice. A <a href="https://www.clubforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2025/02/CfG_ID_ParentalChoiceTaxCredit_PollingMemo1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">February 11-12 poll</a> showed that “nearly three-in-five Idaho voters support passing the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit bill.” The favorability of parental choice in education is nothing new as a 2024 poll of Idahoans by Boise State University found that <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps/2024-idaho-public-policy-survey/#education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">49%</a> strongly favor or somewhat favor education funding following a student to a “private or religious” school whereas only <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps/2024-idaho-public-policy-survey/#education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41.1%</a> somewhat or strongly oppose it.
While the Governor may never reveal why he waited until just a few hours before the deadline to sign the bill or why his office set up the phone poll when the results didn’t sway him, parents with schoolchildren statewide are grateful nevertheless that he delivered.
With House Bill 93 now law, parents who opt for a different education avenue than the failing public school system will be eligible to receive a refundable tax credit of up to <a href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/02/19/private-education-tax-credit-bill-heads-to-idaho-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5,000</a> per student. The amount will increase to <a href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/02/19/private-education-tax-credit-bill-heads-to-idaho-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$7,500</a> per student for those with special needs. Both amounts are thousands of dollars less than public schools spend per student, with unacceptable educational outcomes.
As evidenced by the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress Exam scores, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219ID4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60%</a> of fourth-grade and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219ID8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">69%</a> of eighth-grade public school students in Idaho are not proficient in math. Reading is worse, as <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220ID4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">69%</a> of fourth-grade and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220ID8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">68%</a> of eighth-grade public school students in Idaho aren’t proficient. That’s nearly seven out of ten children failed by the system and robbed of their future.
Idaho is long overdue for allowing parents the freedom to select a better learning option for their children. Parents should not be bound to a failing system and left hoping their child will be one of the three out of the ten students who learn to read and perform math proficiently by the eighth grade.
The Office of the Governor website, on the “About Governor Brad Little” page, <a href="https://gov.idaho.gov/our-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>: “Governor Little is committed to making decisions through one lens: the lens of ensuring Idaho’s children and grandchildren have the best opportunities to stay in Idaho and for the ones who have left to choose to return.
While it may have been in the eleventh hour, Gov. Little took action, recognizing that school choice is the solution to ensuring Idaho’s children and grandchildren have the best opportunities. Continuing course without an exit option for families from schools failing to provide students with proficiency would plague not only each child’s life but the state’s future. Not to mention, families with schoolchildren who have left Idaho would not have been incentivized to return when school choice abounds in other red states.
But thanks to a monumental signature last Thursday, that won’t be the case for the Gem State.
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Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Idaho State Capitol sunset, Boise

This State’s Governor Delivers On School Choice In The Eleventh Hour

Charter Schools

Idaho

Parental Rights in Education

Public Schools

Schools

President Donald Trump hit the ground running, reforming K-12 education and restoring parental rights during his second week back in the Oval Office, which coincided with the 15th annual National School Choice Week.
Last week, President Trump issued the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-educational-freedom-and-opportunity-for-families/">Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families</a>” executive order. According to a White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-expands-educational-opportunities-for-american-families/">fact sheet</a>, the order “recognizes that parents, not the government, play a fundamental role in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children.”
The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-educational-freedom-and-opportunity-for-families/">executive order</a> states that within 60 days, “the Secretary of Education shall issue guidance regarding how States can use Federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives.” It also “directs the Secretary of Education to prioritize school choice programs in the Department’s discretionary grant programs.”
Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services must issue guidance related to “how states receiving block grants for children and families can use those funds to support educational alternatives, including private and faith-based options.”
Furthermore, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-educational-freedom-and-opportunity-for-families/">executive order</a> requires the Secretary of Defense to review and make a plan for how military families “may use funds from the Department of Defense to attend schools of their choice … beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.” Finally, the Secretary of the Interior must submit a plan concerning “how families with students attending Bureau of Indian Education schools can use federal funds to send their children to the school of their choice.”
With clarity and resolve, the President <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-educational-freedom-and-opportunity-for-families/">communicated</a>: “It is the policy of my Administration to support parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children.”
The timing couldn’t have been more fitting as it was the same day the National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/">exam scores</a> were released. The scores revealed that <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=8">7 out of 10</a> schoolchildren cannot read on grade level. Math scores showed that <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=4">6 out of 10</a> fourth-grade students and <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=8">7 out of 10</a> eighth-grade students are not proficient for their grade. These scores make an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-national-test-scores-make-undeniable-case-for-school-choice">undeniable case for school choice</a>.
Also, on Wednesday, the President issued the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/">Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling</a>” executive order. The order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/">stated</a> that “In recent years &#8230; parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.”
The Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, consulting with the Attorney General, have 90 days to formulate an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy.” It will include <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a plan</a> for “eliminating Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology; and protecting parental rights.”
The historic week also included the Trump Administration U.S. Department of Education issuing a <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-enforce-2020-title-ix-rule-protecting-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> stating that it “will return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex in school and on campuses.” This was a necessary measure as <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=411780">the Biden Administration’s rule</a> had redefined the term sex to include ‘gender identity,’ therefore removing protection and equal opportunity for women.
The week prior, under the direction of the President, the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-takes-action-eliminate-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Department of Education</a> took action to “eliminate harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.” <a href="https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_89d2f95a-da74-11ef-881f-c31173f69a5c.html?seyid=48320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More specifically</a>, “The agency said staff leading DEI initiatives have been placed on administrative leave, and over 200 web pages with DEI resources that ‘promote or endorse harmful ideological programs’ have been deleted. It also killed over $2.5 million of DEI contracts.”
President Trump is far from alone in the charge to reform education and empower parents with educational choice for their children. At the state level, last week, the Tennessee House and Senate passed the <a href="https://tneducationfreedom.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Education Freedom Act of 2025</a>. With Gov. Bill Lee’s signature, Tennessee will become the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-gov-lees-signature-tennessee-will-become-13th-state-to-enact-universal-school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">13th state in the nation</a> to enact universal (or near-universal) school choice, joining Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and West Virginia.
At the federal level, last week, Senators Bill Cassidy and Tim Scott, along with <a href="https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-scott-lead-colleagues-in-reintroducing-bill-to-expand-school-choice-educational-opportunity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">24 Republican colleagues</a>, introduced <a href="https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ECCA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Educational Choice for Children Act</a>. The <a href="https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2025/01/29/cassidy-scott-introduces-bill-expanding-school-choice-and-education-opportunity/77716817007/">bill</a> “would provide $10 billion in annual tax credits for individuals and businesses to fund K-12 scholarships.” If passed, roughly 2 million children across the country will have access to scholarship funds for private school tuition and fees, and other educational expenses, including homeschooling.
According to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, <a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1885388215692988724" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during a briefing</a> on Friday, President Trump communicated that “American education should focus on cultivating patriotic citizens who are ready for the workforce.” The President is not only right, but his executive orders last week to empower parental choice and end radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling are essential and foundational steps in the right direction.
More of these swift and sound common-sense measures are needed and undoubtedly on the way from this Administration.
* * *
<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mom and Son Walking to School for First Day of Classes

President Trump Is Wasting No Time Reforming K-12 Education

Department of Education

Executive Orders

K-12

President Trump

Timcast

A Father’s Tragic Fight To Save His Son From Gender Ideology

Children

Gender

Parenting

transgender surgery

California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is being sued by a group over Assembly Bill 1955, which bars schools from notifying parents about their child’s desire to change their sex and be referred to by incorrect pronouns.
Newsom signed the bill into law on July 15.
The bill <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1955">states</a>, “This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law, as provided.&#8221;
“This law is an attack on fundamental parental rights,” America First Legal, which is suing Newsom, <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-sues-gavin-newsom-on-behalf-of-parents-and-the-city-of-huntington-beach-for-forcing-schools-to-hide-a-childs-gender-transition-from-parents/">stated</a>. “It prevents school districts from requiring parental notification if their child begins to exhibit gender confusion, such as by requesting to be called by a name and pronoun of the opposite sex. The law does not set an age limit—schools cannot notify parents even if preschoolers are being socially ‘transitioned.’ It also prevents schools from disciplining employees who are initiating or facilitating social ‘transitioning,’ which courts have recognized is a type of medical intervention or treatment that medical professionals have recognized can inflict serious short-term and long-term harm.”
“This law violates the 14th Amendment, which guarantees the rights of parents to make decisions about their minor children regarding all medical treatment—in this case, social ‘transitioning,’” America First continued. “Fit parents are presumed to act in the best interest of their child. The government cannot intervene in their relationship simply because it does not like the parents’ decision. Whether a child socially ‘transitions’ or announces their sexuality is a personal and private issue, not an educational issue or one to be decided by the government. The State of California is thus intruding in a very personal, private matter—communication on one of the most intimate of topics between a parent and child—in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
In September 2022, AFL <a href="https://aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1-2022-09-07-Complaint.pdf">sued</a> the  Eau Claire Area School District, Wisconsin, over its policy of “hiding critical information regarding a child’s health from his or her parents.” In November 2023, AFL <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-sues-mesa-public-schools-for-promoting-gender-transitions-of-students-without-notifying-parents/">sued</a> Mesa Public Schools for promoting “gender transitions” of students without alerting their parents.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA)

Newsom Sued Over Bill Barring Schools Telling Parents Their Child Is ‘Transitioning’

Gavin Newsom

Gender Transition

A California school district compelled high school freshmen to audit their “privileged” identities and present on “systems of oppression,” documents first obtained by Parents Defending Education reveal and exclusively shared with The Daily Wire.
California’s Alameda Unified School District’s ethnic studies curriculum required students to assess their own level of privilege as they were taught Critical Race Theory and extreme gender theory. Students were given handouts including “My Relationship with Privilege and Oppression,” which purports to tell students “whether you are privileged or oppressed.” White, male, Christian students without a criminal record are singled out as the epitome of privilege.
The document lists 29 different identities and characteristics—including race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, religion and education level—that are used to determine one’s alleged level of privilege or marginalization. “Who am I as an intersectional human being,” it asks students. Another assignment, called “A Map of Myself,” asks students to audit their own identities, categorizing each as a “position of privilege or marginalization.”
“For each identity domain … consider if it puts you in a position of privilege or marginalization,” the assignment reads before asking students to list their race, ethnicity, biological sex, sexual orientation, and religion. Footnotes cite &#8220;anti-racist&#8221; author Robin DiAngelo and argue that “race is a socially constructed system.”
“Considering all your social identities listed in the table above, on a daily basis, which ones are you most aware or conscious of?” the assignment inquires before going on to ask what “the most negative or difficult” thing about that identity is.
The documents appear to be representative of the course writ large. An ethnic studies course syllabus divides the class into four sections, including “power and oppression,” which focuses on “who creates the master narrative and how that impacts the lived experiences of different groups” by creating the “understanding that laws &amp; policies are not objective.&#8221;
“Individuals obsessed with forcing this oppressor vs. oppressed paradigm are poisoning the minds of children,” Parents Defending Education senior adviser Michele Exner told The Daily Wire. “They want to perpetuate a victimhood mentality based on how many ideological boxes someone can check off. What they should be teaching is math, reading, writing, and history—all subjects that will actually help students of all backgrounds excel instead of pushing this divisive content in classrooms.”
Students are expected to “identify social systems that structure and perpetuate power, privilege, and oppression” and “identify how identities intersect to create power, privilege, and oppression.”
The syllabus also details a portion of the course titled “resistance and liberation,” which centers on the “history of resisting oppression as carried out by the oppressed groups themselves,” a theme that supposedly “directly challenges the ‘White Savior’ narrative.” Course vocabulary terms include “white supremacy,” “white privilege,” “microaggressions,” and “colonized mind.”
Another assignment required students to study the “Four I’s Of Oppression&#8221;: &#8220;ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized” oppression. The assignment required groups of students to draw on those &#8220;Four I&#8217;s&#8221; to make a slideshow on “white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, or cisnormativity.”
One course document indicates that students partook in a “<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2021/12/06/critical-race-trove-from-california-district-tells-students-how-to-use-witchcraft-on-people-who-say-all-lives-matter/">privilege walk</a>,” an exercise in which participants form a line and take steps forwards or backwards depending on their response to a <a href="https://youtu.be/hD5f8GuNuGQ?si=olRh_QdQ_jyyUU-J">series of questions</a>. The exercise is intended to indicate the level of privilege each person supposedly has relative to each other.
“In your own words, describe the emotions and thoughts you experienced during the privilege walk. How has it challenged or confirmed your perceptions of privilege and inequality?”
Students were also asked to write an essay on successful political organizing strategies, including how leftwing movements “use grassroots organizing and social media to be successful.” Students could choose from a list of leftist movements to discuss, including Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers.
Alameda Unified School District did not respond to a request for comment.

Governor Gavin Newsom Visits School To Highlight State’s Reopening Efforts

EXCLUSIVE: California School District Makes Students Audit Their Privilege, Give Presentation On Oppression

California

Critical Race Theory

A parental rights group filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York</a> school district of establishing “speech codes” that violate the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/first-amendment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">First Amendment</a> rights of conservative students, according to documents first shared with The Daily Wire.
The suit was filed by Parents Defending Education against Croton-Harmon Union Free School District north of New York City over its harassment and discrimination policies. It argues that the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of students have been violated by the policies, which include requirements for students to use the “preferred pronouns&#8221; of others.
“The District has adopted multiple ‘harassment’ policies that prohibit a broad swath of controversial speech at the heart of the First Amendment,” the <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1_Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> says. “In so doing, the District unconstitutionally discriminates based on viewpoint, requires a student to affirm another student’s gender identity when inconsistent with that student’s sex, prohibits a substantial amount of protected speech, and uses vague terms that an average student cannot understand.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit is asking for the judge to rule that the <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PDEvCHExhibits.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">district policies</a> 0110, 0110-R, 0115, 0115-R, 0115-E, 5300, 4526, and 4526-R are unconstitutional. These policies “punish students for their speech and compel them to mouth support for the District’s preferred views at all times of day, whether at school or not,” according to the suit.
In the suit, Parents Defending Education noted that its members included multiple parents who had students in the district who felt like their ability to speak freely had been restricted.
The challenged policies describe discrimination as including “restrictions on the use of names or pronouns,” and include an acceptable use policy for electronics about the sending of “hate mail.” Additionally, the policies restrict speech determined to be “offensive,” “disparaging,” “degrading,” “derogatory,” &#8220;intimidating,” or “demeaning.”
According to Parents Defending Education, the policies are overly broad and allow students to be punished for their conservative opinions.
“Speech codes punish students for unpopular speech labeled as ‘harassment,’ ‘bullying,’ ‘hate speech,’ or ‘incivility’ — categories so broad that school officials can use them to ban speech based on one’s firmly held views including religious views, or to compel speech contrary to those views,” the suit says. “When these policies impose vague, overbroad, or viewpoint-based restrictions on speech, they are unconstitutional.”
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Parents Defending Education has been active across the country in efforts to push for accountability and transparency at public schools.
“Over the past century, the Supreme Court has made abundantly clear that students have robust First Amendment rights – and that education officials may not trample on these rights at their pleasure,” Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily said in a statement to The Daily Wire. “Silencing unpopular viewpoints and compelling the speech of students in a public school system is fundamentally un-American.”
Croton-Harmon Union Free School District did not respond to a request for comment.

Transgender Symbol and Pencils With The Color of Lgbt Flag

EXCLUSIVE: Parents Group Challenges New York School District Over ‘Speech Codes’ On Pronouns

First Amendment

Free Speech

Gender Pronouns

New York

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/parents-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parental rights</a> group Parents Defending Education released a report on Monday warning about the widespread adoption of “restorative justice” disciplinary practices at schools, saying that the new policies may lead to dangerous and disruptive classrooms.
The <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/list-of-school-districts-using-restorative-practices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> found that there are at least 18,808 schools across 506 school districts with restorative justice policies in place. Restorative justice policies in practice often focus on conversations between offender and victim in contrast to more traditional discipline techniques like suspension and expulsion.
&#8220;Restorative justice has proven to be a disaster for school safety and school culture,” Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach for Parents Defending Education, told The Daily Wire. “Are there minor infractions for which it can work? Sure. But in an effort to juke the discipline statistics and feel good about themselves, school districts have allowed their schools to get out of control in terms of defiance, disruption and even violence. It can&#8217;t continue.&#8221;
According to the report, there are at least 11,540,428 students who go to schools with restorative justice policies. Some of these students go to schools in conservative states like Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee.
“Restorative justice is a philosophy for student discipline where reconciliation between the offender and the victim is the ultimate goal,” the report explained. “In many school districts, restorative justice has REPLACED exclusionary discipline in schools, so the response to a violent action in class is not a suspension or expulsion, but to clear the classroom and have a restorative conference.”
Parents Defending Education found that districts in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, and Wyoming all used restorative justice techniques.
The state with the most districts by far was California, with at least 335 districts having some guide of restorative justice practice in place.
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“In restorative justice, reconciliation, not punishment, is the goal. The ‘Western’ view of crime and punishment is thought to be a byproduct of colonialism,” Parents Defending Education President Nicki Neily <a href="https://twitter.com/nickineily/status/1790372082573803976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X. “This approach to discipline is failing students, teachers, and families.”
The organization noted that its list is not comprehensive and that there could be more school districts with similar policies across the country.

Empty high school corridor with lockers lining the walls

Parents’ Rights Group Warns About New Disciplinary Technique Sweeping The Nation

The official curriculum at a Texas school district teaches students that strengthened immigration laws to secure the southern border are part of a “system of oppression” targeting Mexican Americans, according to documents obtained through public records request.
The politically-charged message was part of a high school class called “Advanced Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies,” at the Round Rock Independent School District just outside of Austin. The goal of the class, according to the documents, is for students to be able to &#8220;describe how significant events from 1975 to present have strengthened systems of oppression against Mexican Americans, such as the strengthened immigration laws that made immigration from Mexico harder.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_708513" style="width: 733px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-708513" class="wp-image-708513 " src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM-300x236.png" alt="" width="723" height="569" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM-300x236.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM-732x576.png 732w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM-768x604.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM-1536x1208.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Screen-Shot-2024-03-11-at-2.26.37-PM.png 1790w" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" />Parents Defending Education</div>
The school district’s portrayal of immigration restriction as an act of oppression comes as the United States, and Texas in particular, grapples with an unprecedented surge of illegal migrants at the southern border, with about 9 million <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters">nationwide encounters</a> and 1.7 million <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-may-have-lost-track-millions-of-migrants-crossing-southern-border-congressional-report">estimated gotaways</a> since Biden took office.
The term &#8220;illegal immigrant,&#8221; which Biden was forced to apologize for using in his State of the Union address, is also deemed unacceptable by the liberal school district.
“The terms ‘illegal’ and ‘undocumented’ are often used to describe individuals who have entered or are residing in a country without proper legal authorization,&#8221; the lesson plan says. &#8220;However, these terms can carry negative connotations and may perpetuate stereotypes.&#8221;
A quote featured in the lesson from poet Luis Alberto Urrea labels the term “illegal alien” as “a term by which an invading colonial force vilifies Indigenous cultures by identifying them as an invading colonial force.”
<div id="attachment_708519" style="width: 748px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-708519" class=" wp-image-708519" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="738" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Untitled-design-15.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px" />Parents Defending Education</div>
Parents Defending Education, an education watchdog which obtained the documents through records request, said the &#8220;curriculum is at odds with American values, as well as truth and facts.&#8221;
“Forcing students to sit through history courses dedicated to teaching through the lens of oppressor and oppressed is an effort to hijack the English language to manipulate and indoctrinate our most vulnerable in public schools,” Caroline Moore, its Vice President, told The Daily Wire.
The curriculum praises a leftist activist organization called Jolt Action, which openly advocates for amnesty for illegal immigrants. “The criminalization of undocumented immigrants and the demonization of those who come to this country seeking a better future must end,” Jolt Action’s <a href="https://jolttx.org/actions/">website</a> reads.
“Those in power should reflect Texas’ demographic truth: The majority of us are people of color, half of us are women, many of us are LGBTQ+, and most of us make less than $29,000 a year,” <a href="https://jolttx.org/actions/">Jolt action states</a>, also calling on politicians to be “truly accountable” to “la raza.”
The curriculum documents go on to identify forms of “resistance and liberation,” with another learning goal for the class being for students to be able to &#8220;describe how significant events from 1975 to present have resisted systems of oppression against Mexican Americans, such as DACA and Texas Dreamers Act,” referring to a policy that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the United States if they were brought to the country illegally as children.
“No student should go to school and learn that an illegal immigrant is actually in the right and law-abiding citizens are oppressing them,” Moore charged. “This district needs to be investigated immediately. Can you imagine what else they’re teaching students?”
Round Rock Independent School District did not respond to a request for comment.

Illegal Border Crossings

Texas Public School Teaches That ‘Strengthened Immigration Laws’ Are Oppressive

Texas

A parental rights group has filed a federal complaint against public schools in Portland, Oregon, for taking gender identity and race into account when disciplining students.
On Thursday, Parents Defending Education filed a federal civil rights <a target="_blank" href="https://defendinged.org/complaints/ocr-complaint-portland-public-schools-2/" rel="noopener">complaint</a> with the Department of Education against Portland Public Schools, criticizing the district&#8217;s new discipline policy.
&#8220;Portland Public Schools has enacted several concerning policies that treat students and educators differently based on race and gender identity,&#8221; including &#8220;disciplining some students and not others, solely based on immutable characteristics,&#8221; reads the complaint.
&#8220;Accordingly, we ask that the Department promptly investigate the allegations in this complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief,&#8221; the complaint says.
The new discipline policy is part of a collective bargaining <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pps.net/cms/lib/OR01913224/Centricity/Domain/56/Tentative%20Agreements%20Combined%2011.27.23%20PAT.pdf" rel="noopener">agreement</a> between Portland Public Schools and its unionized teachers, which ended a nearly month-long strike in late November.
When a student engages in “continuous disruptive behavior,” school officials must develop a “support plan” for the student that “must take into consideration the impact of issues related to the student’s trauma, race, gender identity/presentation, sexual orientation, disability, social emotional learning, and restorative justice as appropriate for the student,” the agreement <a target="_blank" href="https://defendinged.org/complaints/ocr-complaint-portland-public-schools-2/" rel="noopener">states</a>.
“Teachers in Portland Public Schools are encouraged to discipline students based on their race and it&#8217;s appalling,&#8221; said Caroline Moore, vice president of Parents Defending Education.
&#8220;The teachers wanted to amend the policy so desperately that they included the provision in their strike agreement. This is corrupt and un-American. I’m anxiously awaiting the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation into this district&#8217;s unlawful practices,&#8221; Moore said.
The new disciplinary policy also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-teachers-will-take-gender-identity-race-into-account-before-disciplining" rel="noopener">prohibits</a> suspending a student who threatens or harms other people. Those students may now only be removed from their classroom and sent to a “self-regulation space” within the school.
Previously, Portland schools <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-public-schools-changed-suspension-policy-teachers-strike/283-57387413-23d3-46e9-aea7-c532fd91b37f" rel="noopener">could</a> suspend middle and high school students for at least five days for extreme cases of students causing physical harm or threatening violence. Now, through the union agreement, the district has expanded its rapid response teams, which are supposed to intervene early in these situations.
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The agreement replaces the term “unacceptable” student behavior with “continuous disruptive” behavior and refers to “support plans” rather than “behavior correction plans.”
Student discipline has been a growing concern in Portland’s public schools.
Portland teachers have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-public-schools-changed-suspension-policy-teachers-strike/283-57387413-23d3-46e9-aea7-c532fd91b37f" rel="noopener">said</a> they are seeing “more students in crisis” with mental health issues, which can lead to fights.
In response, the Portland school district has been working to beef up its “restorative justice” practices over the last two years. However, after the pandemic, the district saw a spike in requests for the district’s restorative justice services, highlighting the discipline issue.

Rear view of teenage girls and boys learning in classroom

Parent Group Files Federal Complaint Against Portland Schools For Disciplining Based On Gender Identity, Race

Oregon

Portland

teachers union

Teachers Unions

The majority of voters support state laws banning sex change surgeries on children and trust parents more than teachers on issues of gender and sexuality, according to a poll exclusively shared with The Daily Wire. 
The <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/January-4-Survey-Analysis-Minors-and-Gender-Issues.pptx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a>, conducted by CRC Research for the 85 Fund, found that 67% of voters supported laws that prohibit minors from being put on cross-sex hormones and undergoing sex change surgeries. The poll surveyed 1,600 registered voters across the country from January 3 to 7 and was composed of 30% Republicans, 34% independents, and 35% Democrats. 
Every demographic surveyed from Republican (73%) to independent (71%) to Democrat (61%) expressed some support for state laws shielding children from transgender procedures. Over 20 states have passed laws protecting kids from transgender procedures, with courts upholding some of the laws and blocking others. 
The survey also found that voters overwhelmingly opposed the creation of independent health centers in schools that promote cross-sex hormone therapy and other transgender procedures. 
&#8220;This poll confirms that gender ideology is a unifying issue across party lines and a vast majority of Americans support parental rights and restricting irreversible medical transition interventions for minors. Americans also oppose our government pushing community school health clinics that will further threaten parental rights,” January Littlejohn, a parental advocate with Do No Harm, a group that seeks to end the politicization of medicine, told The Daily Wire in response to the poll’s findings. 
Eighty-one percent of those surveyed expressed support for parents to be informed about discussions of gender dysphoria and related topics, while 10% disagreed with the sentiment. 
Another question asked about a case in Michigan where school officials are alleged to have treated an 11-year-old girl as a boy without parental knowledge or consent. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said the parents were right to sue the district over the incident, while 24% said schools may have to keep some student information private. 
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A majority of Republicans (88%), independents (76%), and Democrats (71%) said that they trusted parents more than teachers and school officials to discuss issues of gender identity and sexuality. 
&#8220;These figures decisively show that voter support for family involvement in children&#8217;s lives transcends political ideology. These numbers are consistent with previous polls conducted by PDE, the Becket Fund, and others — which is why it&#8217;s absolutely mind-boggling that education officials seem to consider it their sacred duty to spend finite taxpayer resources encouraging students to keep secrets from their loved ones, undermining the parent-child relationship in the process,” Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily said. 
The poll also contained bad news for President Joe Biden, with just 41% approving of his performance and 56% disapproving. Nearly two-thirds of those polled also said the country was moving in the wrong direction, while 32% said it was going in the right direction.

Hand of nurse preparing arranging medical surgical tools on tray wearing latex gloves protective workwear for safety in surgery operation room in hospital with medical professional doctor nurse

Majority Of Voters Support State Laws Protecting Children From Trans Procedures: Poll

Politics

Poll

Social Issues

Transgender

Voters

It’s the first day back from the Christmas holidays. Your 12-year-old son comes down the stairs, ready for school. You take a second look. He’s in a skirt, heels, and lipstick.
Do you have a right to ask him to change?
Under new proposals in Scotland, you could face criminal penalties if you ask him to do so repeatedly – on “at least two occasions.”
Perhaps your son, in retaliation against your repeatedly expressed concerns, reports you to local authorities. He feels “distressed,” he says, because you are being “controlling,” or “pressuring” him to “act in a certain way.”
According to the draft “<a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/ending-conversion-practices-scotland-scottish-government-consultation/">conversion therapy ban</a>” opened to public consultation this week, you’ve now met the threshold – you&#8217;re accused of adopting a “coercive course of behaviour in the context of conversion practices.”
Your crime carries a potential penalty of up to seven years imprisonment; or an unlimited fine; or both.
As if parenting Gen Alpha wasn’t challenging enough.
Since the early public introduction of the concept, bans on “conversion therapy” have undergone a radical evolution at the hands of politicians and activists. Once explained as a necessary protection from electro-shock chairs and other abuses, activists have now expanded the concept dramatically to one that is far more opaque. Physical abuse has long been illegal, and obviously, rightly so. But now, as evidenced by the proposed new law, a ban on “conversion therapy” seeks to restrict something even more far-reaching – the act of basic parenting.
The law would allow social workers and state authorities to interfere in the relationship between parent and child in an unprecedented way. This follows an ideological pattern of Scotland’s famously “woke” government set long in the tooth. Citizens will remember the attempt throughout the 2010s to assign every child in Scotland a “named person” &#8211; a personal government official with access to private information, set to swoop in as a substitute parent. The overreaching scheme was brought down in court. But it’s clear that in Scotland, “mother” (or father) is far from trusted to know best.
<div id="attachment_679695" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-679695" class="size-large wp-image-679695" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-1915190884-864x576.jpg" alt="EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 10: Emma Roddick, Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees, leads a debate in the Scottish Parliament on The Impact of UK Government Asylum Policy and Legislation in Scotland, on January 10, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ken Jack/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-1915190884-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-1915190884-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-1915190884-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/01/GettyImages-1915190884.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND &#8211; JANUARY 10: Emma Roddick, Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees, leads a debate in the Scottish Parliament on The Impact of UK Government Asylum Policy and Legislation in Scotland. (Photo by Ken Jack/Getty Images)</div>
Certainly, we need social care systems in place to rescue children from truly abusive situations. But the ability of a parent to advise, raise concerns, persuade, teach, and discipline a child is paramount in raising the next generation. Instead of being supported to play their role well, parents are placed under a terrifying, and well-founded, fear of losing their children or being locked up in prison, all the while navigating the extreme sensitivities of a child who may be struggling with a wide range of issues. The number of kids now identifying as “trans” is skyrocketing – especially amongst girls, and kids with autism. Any evidence they’ll be better off with an alter-ego gender is, at best, supremely contested. And the potential damage they can inflict upon their bodies in the process is severe.
Aren’t those who push kids down a path of such significant transition the ones truly guilty of practicing “conversion therapy”?
Confusion abounds. Fear mounts. Scotland could well be fast becoming the hardest place to raise a family in the West.
And what of the kids? As parents self-censor to avoid banishment, a generation is raised having never heard the word “no.” If there is no real discussion, objection, or concern raised to decisions they make at home, how will they possibly cope in the world at large, where a diverse and tolerant society requires that they hear other views than their own? 
Children are not adults. Who knows where we’d all be today if we’d been empowered too early to make life-changing decisions?
And parents are not children. The vast majority are committed to doing the job of raising their children well. Many hold firm, science-based beliefs in the immutability of biological sex. Many have committed to steer their child away from an ideological path potentially leading to severe bodily harm and permanent, life-altering decisions.
Common sense is not a crime. Mums and dads might not be perfect, but the state is a terrible parent.
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Lois McLatchie Miller is a Scottish commentator and spokesperson for Alliance Defending Freedom UK. Follow her: @LoisMcLatch
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Scottish Daily Politics 2024

Prison Penalties For Parents Who Refuse To ‘Trans’ Their Kids? Welcome to Scotland.

Prison Penalties For Parents Who Refuse To 'Trans' Their Kids? Welcome to Scotland. 

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