Most people do not agree with former President Barack Obama’s scolding that suburban white parents are raising “phony” issues in their school board protests across the nation.
What’s more, three-quarters believe that schools are indeed forwarding controversial agendas that parents don’t agree with, a blow to liberal activists pushing for pro-transgender policies and the teaching of critical race theory in classrooms.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey said that 76% of adults are concerned that schools are “promoting controversial beliefs and attitudes.” Of those, 58% said they were “very concerned,” the highest level of worry.
Those concerns crossed party lines. Among Democrats, for example, 66% expressed concern in the new survey, while concern was a sky-high 90% for Republicans.
Obama heightened the war over school boards when he campaigned for embattled Democrat Terry McAuliffe, running for a second term as governor. In a campaign stop, Obama took a swipe at parents in the state’s affluent white counties who are fighting liberal policies in classrooms and pushing back at McAuliffe’s comment that parents shouldn’t be in charge of what their children are taught.
According to the analysis of the Rasmussen survey by Human Events, “Former President Barack Obama recently tried to dismiss parental concerns about schools in Virginia, describing controversies over transgenderism and critical race theory as ‘phony trumped-up culture wars’ and ‘fake outrage.’ However, 57% of Americans believe parents should be concerned about transgenderism and CRT in public schools, while only 27% think these are basically phony issues. Another 16% are not sure.”
The issue of parental involvement has exploded across the nation as students return to class after a year at home during the coronavirus crisis. Scenes of parental protests of liberal policies prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to call for an investigation, enflaming the issue further.
