Parents Bill of Rights Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. WILSON of Florida. Mr. Chair, today I rise in opposition to H.R. 5. As an educator, I believe parent voices should be honored in schools. All educators believe this.

We know that this bill is not about that at all. We have always had parents involved in our schools, so stop being foolish and divisive. We always need their input.

This bill is nothing more than a talking point of the extreme MAGA agenda that will hurt children and hurt our schools. Let's face it-- there has been a movement to eliminate public education since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.

With the election of our President 7 years ago, it pulled the scab of a wound that never healed. Now it is an open, gaping wound, and it is out of control. They are throwing everything at public schools but the kitchen sink: vouchers, excessive testing, poorly paid teachers, banning books, and now they are trying to drive a wedge and create an antagonistic relationship between schools and their parents. How pathetic. How dreadful.

Parents love teachers. Everybody loves teachers. Every parent has an ``I love and remember a teacher'' story. How disgraceful that we want to terrorize the very people who love our children, keep them safe, and educate them for over 8 hours daily. Our teachers are sacrificial lambs.

You will never eliminate public schools. We will fight you as long as it takes. This is all that the little children who look like me have. Public schools are the bedrock of this Nation.

Let me tell you what a parent's bill of rights should include. I will call it the parents' 10 commandments:

Thou shalt restore the Child Tax Credit; provide free, hot breakfast and lunch; provide free pre-K and free community college.

Thou shalt end the school-to-prison pipeline; put a nurse in every school; offer after-school activities; provide intensive counseling services, particularly to address school shootings.

Thou shalt offer parents the right to improve their education and job skills, love and respect every child's individuality, guarantee that every child's teacher will make a minimum of $60,000 a year.

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