Preserving the Integrity of Education: A Clarion Call for Parental Empowerment

The Founding Fathers recognized the vital importance of an educated citizenry for the survival of our republic. Thomas Jefferson, in particular, viewed education as essential for enabling every citizen to participate meaningfully in a free society. However, the Biden administration's proposed reinterpretation of Title IX threatens to undermine this Jeffersonian vision, potentially punishing women and undermining the rights that have been affirmed for them over the past five decades.

A Clarion Call to Safeguard Our Children's Future

The Jeffersonian Vision of Education

The Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, recognized the vital importance of an educated citizenry for the survival of our republic. Jefferson believed that public education was essential for equipping every citizen with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate meaningfully in a free society. In 1818, he described public education as the means to "give every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business ... to express and preserve his own ideas ... to improve his morals and faculties ... to understand his duties, and to exercise his rights."

The Enactment of Title IX

In 1972, Congress, recognizing certain inadequacies in the law for women that didn't fully live up to the Jeffersonian vision, passed Title IX of the Education Amendments. For 52 years, this landmark legislation has protected women's pursuit of their dreams, expanding their athletic, academic, and economic opportunities.

The Biden Administration's Proposed Reinterpretation of Title IX

However, the Biden administration and its Education Department, in thrall to radical gender ideology, now seek to erase this progress. By proposing to reinterpret the statute by replacing "sex" with "gender identity," the administration would transform a statute meant to protect women into one that would punish them. From kindergarten to college, girls would be unable to raise their voices to protect the very rights Title IX affirmed for them for more than five decades.

The Ramifications of the Proposed Changes

The ramifications of the Biden administration's proposed rule change are deeply unsettling. Last year in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, parents sounded the alarm when a fully intact male coach, who goes by the name Sasha Yates and identifies as a woman, regularly changed in the girls' locker room, exposing his male genitalia in front of 15- and 16-year-old girls. In West Virginia, a group of girls was banned from a track meet after refusing to compete against a male in a shot-put competition.Under the proposed rule change, these girls could be cited for sexual harassment for expressing extremely natural and justified concerns about their mental and physical well-being. These rules would also operate in conjunction with academic curricula and counseling programs that are meant to drive a wedge between children and parents, undermining their ability to use logic and reason to understand the world.

The Assault on Free Speech and Parental Rights

The Biden administration's proposed changes also involve compelled speech and censorship. Elementary school students who plainly see their teacher as a man in a dress are told to defy their senses and pretend that adult is a woman. Students who might feel uncomfortable accommodating someone else's ever-changing personal pronouns or sharing a restroom with someone of the opposite sex are pushed to seek mental health counseling.These students are then emotionally manipulated into believing that if they speak the truth, they are driving trans students toward self-harm. Teachers who reject this newspeak are cowed into submission, facing disciplinary action should they stand up for the truth.

The Erosion of a Free Society

The current educational model, where children are trained to submit to the gender ideology du jour, is incompatible with the maintenance of a free society. This is a war on our families, our children, and the First Amendment, and the Biden administration is taking these steps because it is losing.Across the country, organizations such as Moms for Liberty, Leadership Institute, and Moms for America are mobilizing concerned parents to run for school boards and push back on this madness. Louisiana recently became the 11th state to pass universal school choice, giving parents more authority over where their children attend school. At the behest of groups such as the American Principles Project, states are passing laws to protect girls' sports and ban the social and physical gender transition of our children.

The Fight for the Future of Education

Everywhere you turn, engaged parents and grandparents are bridging the partisan divide to restore and preserve an educational system that gives our kids the skills they need to be upstanding citizens in a free republic. They are bravely guarding the ability of our children to reason, to dream, and to speak the truth without fear of retribution from some Orwellian Ministry of Truth.Now, more than ever, we must come together to support and learn from each other, to share our stories and to show the Washington bureaucrats that we will not sit idly by while they rob our kids of their birthright. That's why I'll join the March for Kids on Aug. 31 on the National Mall, demonstrating peacefully with thousands of families to remind the government that we won't let the bureaucrats steal our children's right to speak freely.Parents and grandparents who care about the education of their children should join us in this fight to preserve the integrity of our educational system and the fundamental rights of our children.