In 2021, the campaign ship of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe ran aground, purportedly on the question of whether parents had the right to have a say in their children’s education.
The election that elected such a Board was one that the whole electorate had the chance to vote in. As such it has more legitimacy than an effort of a much smaller group to disrupt a meeting of that elected board after it has been elected.
The disrupters may be parents with some rights over the education of their own children. They have no such rights over the education of other parents’ children. The disrupters may be parents but no one elected them to speak for all parents and those who disagree with them have no duty to outshout the disrupters.
Where education is publicly funded (including where there are publicly funded charter schools and education vouchers), the electorate deserves a say regardless whether or not they have children in school. For proponents of "parent rights" who find public education objectionable, parents have the same remedies they have always had: parents can offset any public schooling by indoctrination of the parent's beliefs at home and by sending their children to private schools of their choice.
Another way to put this is:
The election that elected such a Board was one that the whole electorate had the chance to vote in. As such it has more legitimacy than an effort of a much smaller group to disrupt a meeting of that elected board after it has been elected.
The disrupters may be parents with some rights over the education of their own children. They have no such rights over the education of other parents’ children. The disrupters may be parents but no one elected them to speak for all parents and those who disagree with them have no duty to outshout the disrupters.
Where education is publicly funded (including where there are publicly funded charter schools and education vouchers), the electorate deserves a say regardless whether or not they have children in school. For proponents of "parent rights" who find public education objectionable, parents have the same remedies they have always had: parents can offset any public schooling by indoctrination of the parent's beliefs at home and by sending their children to private schools of their choice.