[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 16, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S726-S727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Local School Boards

  Mr. President, now on one final matter, parents and kids need a swift 
end to pandemic disruptions that ignore the incredibly low risk to 
children.
  I am proudly joining Senator Thune and many of our Republican 
colleagues on a resolution that would overturn the absurd preschool 
mask mandates which the Biden administration has tied to Head Start 
funding.
  More than 1,200 doctors and health professionals have signed a public 
statement about ``the Urgency of Normal''--``the Urgency of Normal''--
the medical and moral urgency of returning normalcy back to children as 
fast as possible. Republicans at the local, State, and Federal level 
are standing with the parents. We are going to keep fighting against 
these disruptions to family life caused by rules and mandates that are 
not at all based in science. Two years of needless school closures 
and unscientific, forced child-masking are 2 years too many.

  But, unfortunately, pandemic policies are not the only reason that 
recent years have been one giant advertisement for school choice and 
parents' rights. We have also seen far-left bureaucrats trying 
desperately to inject radical theories and fringe ideas into teacher 
trainings and K-12 classrooms.
  Everybody has heard draw-dropping anecdotes from school districts all 
across our country. Last year, the Biden administration tried to divert 
money for mainstream civics education into woke propaganda like the 
debunked 1619 Project. They only backed down when Senate Republicans 
called out Secretary Cardona directly. Meanwhile, the far-left national 
teachers union adopted an official resolution and approved extra money 
for their fight to make ``structural racism'' and ``critical race 
theory'' into central tenets in kids' schooling.
  This nonsense is absolutely pervasive--pervasive.
  Just a few weeks ago, North Carolina parents had to call out their 
statewide Office of Early Learning for funding training materials that 
talked about ``deconstruct[ing] whiteness''--``deconstruct[ing] 
whiteness.'' These materials were for preschool teachers.
  In San Francisco, the school board spent 2021 focused on renaming 
schools instead of reopening schools. They decided ``George 
Washington'' and ``Abraham Lincoln'' were insufficiently woke 
namesakes, and they tried to change a prestigious high school's merit-
based standards into a non-merit-based lottery in the name of equity.
  Not surprisingly, parents are watching this nonsense and demanding 
change. For example, just yesterday, a multiethnic multilingual recall 
campaign to unseat three of those San Francisco school board members 
won an overwhelming victory with the voters.
  American parents are speaking out, but instead of listening to them, 
the political left is lashing out.
  President Biden's Education Secretary solicited an outside group to 
send a letter to President Biden's Attorney General that referred to 
concerned parents as potential domestic terrorists.
  One part of the Biden administration set up another part of the Biden 
administration with a pretext to investigate and harass concerned 
parents.
  One far-left advocate recently complained to NPR that ``school 
transparency is essentially this big brother-type regime.'' What a 
joke.
  The nationwide teachers union boss, Randi Weingarten, personally 
tweeted out a claim that ``racists . . . are showing up in droves to 
school board meetings.''

[[Page S727]]

  Even the liberal ACLU, which used to care about individual rights and 
transparency, is prioritizing woke bureaucrats ahead of middle-class 
parents. Here was the ACLU's statement:

       Curriculum transparency bills are just thinly veiled 
     attempts at chilling teachers and students from learning and 
     talking about race and gender in schools.

  So let's think about that for a minute. The far left is admitting in 
public that if the public gets to look at the racial and gender 
theories that they want to teach little kids, then those lesson plans 
will become untenable.
  I am going to say that again. The far left is admitting in public 
that if the public gets a look at the racial and gender theories that 
they want to teach little kids, then these lesson plans will become 
untenable.
  That is what they are actually saying. If parents gain transparency 
into the crazy stuff we are teaching, we might have to stop teaching 
it.
  In other words, their reaction proves the point. The fact that woke 
bureaucrats are this terrified by transparency proves exactly--
exactly--why parents deserve it.
  Bear in mind, these same people are passionate supporters of a 
sweeping toddler takeover that would give Federal bureaucrats huge new 
powers to shape early childhood across America and discriminate against 
religious daycares.
  The choice before American families is actually pretty stark. On the 
one hand, an alliance between Big Labor, woke bureaucrats, and many 
elected Democrats apparently wants indefinitely masked children being 
taught radical nonsense while parents are pushed to the sidelines. But 
Republicans at the local, State, and national levels are standing up 
for science, for common sense, and for the children's best interests. 
The party of parents has your back.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.