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Parents Bill of Rights flyer

Parents Bill of Rights flyer

MomsRising

March 2023 #KeepMarching meeting: Debunking the "Parents Bill of Rights"

May 9, 2023
Joy Ikekhua's picture
Joy Ikekhua
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During March's #KeepMarching meeting, we dove deep into what the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights”is really about, the harm it will have on our kids and communities, and explored ideas for protecting our communities. 

We are very grateful to Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, MomsRising’s Executive Director / CEO & Co-Founder, Elizabeth Anderson, former Duval county school board member, and Nina Perez, MomsRising’s National Director for Early Learning, for bringing their knowledge to the meeting. 

I. In case you missed the meeting, or would like to review any part of the program, no problem, we recorded it! MomsRising.org/MRPBOR (Passcode: dGA7u5$y)

II.  How can we develop a coordinated response to the on-the-ground yuck? 

The first step for any coordinated response is information! Are you seeing anything  in your community in relation to the Parents Bill of Rights & book bans? Are you already deeply engaged in fighting the yuck and have tactics and advice to share? Email keepmarching@momsrising.org or reply to this email and let us know!

III. Participant Comments

We had people joining from the far corners of the country -- from Boulder, Colorado, to Tallahassee, Florida, and from Scituate, Rhode Island, to Scottsdale, Arizona. The conversation was informative, eye-opening, and highly engaged. Here are just a few of the many valuable comments and questions that participants shared in the simultaneous chatroom:

Susana (23:03): [The Parents Bill of Rights] also targets Queer youth in a truly dangerous way.

Suzi (27:50): Get on your school boards!  Make sure you have policies in place to defend books/curriculum when it is challenged so just one parent doesn't have that level of power.

Vicki (34:48): We try to counter Moms for Liberty in our school board meetings.  But they seem to be highly organized, and we understand that they have a playbook and specific "tools"  (e.g., TPs)  that they share with each other across the country.  Does MomsRising have a similar toolkit to share with people coming from our perspective?

Laura (00:35:17): Regardless of the national vote, there are state-level initiatives that could be more easily implemented,  DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida has a similar name: “Parental Rights in Education.” They passed it for K-12 and then DeSantis expanded it through high schools.

Colleen W (38:22): We need to focus at the state level and statehouses. NC, through the defection of a Democrat now has a super majority in the NC House and Senate. They are now going to push through all of the awful policies like those in Florida.

Zareen (46:09): Parents Bill of Wrongs- thank you for that framing- keep repeating it!

Colleen B (01:34:35): My kids have graduated and since I’ve paid less attention to school board elections—until recently.  We need to reach out to ALL moms, preschool moms as well as moms with older kids.

Margo (01:35:53): This is my first online mtg with momsrising! Thank you !

IV. Resources to help you learn more:

VI. We love meeting with members of our #KeepMarching community, and hope to see you at our next meeting. We’ll be talking about the hunger cliff, and also about guns and the hidden history of the Second Amendment. We’ll be sharing details and sign-up pages soon, so stay tuned! 

With hope and in solidarity,

Joy

The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.

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