AND THE PARENTS MARCH GOES ON – OVERNIGHT:  I've never seen an issue build so fast.  Education is now a major topic of discussion in political races.  Virginia set the tone when parents started rebelling against the way they were treated and what their children were being taught.   From the New York Post: 

More Americans are uneasy about what children are learning in the classroom.

According to a new Fox News poll released Thursday, 73 percent of registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about what is being taught in public schools amid an ongoing national debate over the addition of critical race theory to K-12 curricula.

The survey found that the only issues more worrying to voters are inflation and higher prices (87 percent extremely or very concerned) health care (76 percent) and political divisions in America (76 percent). Issues that rank behind education on the list of worries include unemployment (71 percent), the federal deficit (70 percent), the border crisis (69 percent) and the COVID-19 pandemic (67 percent).

Republicans (81 percent), parents (80 percent) and independents (74 percent) are far more likely to say they are extremely or very concerned about public school lessons, while just 63 percent of Democrats say they are extremely or very worried about the issue.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) say school administrators pushing a political agenda is a “major problem” in the US, compared to 57 percent who say the same of violent threats against public school officials and 54 percent who say the same of parents aggressively pushing a political agenda at school board meetings.

School administrators pushing a political agenda is a topic of concern for 63 percent of respondents.

Around half (49 percent) of registered voters said that too much focus on race was a “major problem” in public schools, more than said the same of parents not having enough say over curricula (47 percent) and “overly accommodating transgender policies” (44 percent).

Earlier Thursday, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over his Oct. 4 memo in which he that the FBI would probe what he called “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”

Garland’s announcement was in response to a Sept. 29 letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA), which stated that incidents involving parents protesting at school board meetings “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and asked the White House to “examine appropriate enforceable actions” under legislation including the post-9/11 Patriot Act. 

COMMENT:  The parents revolt is a very good thing.  Democracies turn slowly, but, when they turn, they turn decisively.  I just have the sense that the parents revolt is the start of something decisive in American life, and that the age of wokeness may have reached its limit.

October 21, 2021