Who gets to raise your child—you, or the state?
That is the question at the heart of the fight for parental rights in education. Across the country, parents are waking up to a harsh reality: public schools are no longer just institutions of learning. They have become battlegrounds where radical ideologies take precedence over academic achievement, and where parental authority is being systematically undermined.
This isn’t just a Baltimore problem—it’s a national crisis.
A System That No Longer Prioritizes Education
In Maryland, five-year-old children are being told they can reject biological reality and make irreversible, life-altering decisions about their gender. At the same time, policymakers argue that young people aren’t mentally developed enough to understand the consequences of violent crime.
Which is it? Are children mature enough to consent to medical interventions that permanently alter their bodies but not old enough to know right from wrong?
This contradiction is part of a broader trend in public education—one that prioritizes political activism over academics, ideology over parental involvement, and institutional power over individual rights.
Meanwhile, academic performance continues to plummet. In Baltimore, over 20 schools reported zero students proficient in math, yet the focus of the education system has shifted away from core subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead of addressing these failures, schools are lowering standards and covering up the data to give the illusion of progress.
The Findings of Our Lawsuit
In my lawsuit against Baltimore City Public Schools, we uncovered practices that should concern every parent, regardless of where they live:
- Rampant grade manipulation—students being passed along despite failing, just to protect the system’s statistics.
- Lack of accountability—teachers and administrators changing grades without oversight.
- Blocked parental involvement—parents deliberately left in the dark about what is happening in their child’s classroom.
The problems in Baltimore are not isolated. Parents in cities across America are discovering similar issues—grade inflation, lack of transparency, and an education bureaucracy that refuses to be held accountable.
As part of our settlement, we forced the district to make student promotion, attendance, and grade changes more transparent, but these measures alone won’t fix the system. They simply expose the extent of its failure.
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One of the most troubling revelations is the growing influence of Planned Parenthood and activist organizations in public education. Schools have granted access to “youth-friendly reproductive health services,” including contraceptives and abortion referrals—without parental consent.
And now, with Maryland’s newly codified “reproductive freedom” laws, vague language leaves open the possibility that parents who object to gender transitions or medical procedures for their children could be in violation of the state constitution.
Schools should be centers of learning, not political and ideological battlegrounds where outside organizations push agendas that override parental rights.
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For too long, we’ve been told that public schools are the only option and that more funding is the answer. But the problems in public education are not about money—they are about misplaced priorities and a system that resists accountability.
If we want real change, parents must take back their rightful place in their children’s education. That means:
- Getting involved in your local school district. Attend school board meetings. Ask questions. Demand transparency.
- Understanding what your children are being taught. Review their curriculum. Speak with their teachers. Challenge radical policies.
- Exploring alternatives when necessary. If the public system refuses to change, parents must be willing to consider homeschooling, private education, or co-ops.
This is not just about Baltimore. This is happening in school districts across the country.
Parental rights are fundamental, and it is up to parents—not bureaucrats, not activist groups, and not the state—to determine how their children are raised and educated.
The fight for our children’s future begins at home. It begins with parents demanding better. And it begins now.
