Schools' gender, DEI policies pushed parents to the right

Surrounded by female athletes, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" that declares biology -- not gender -- should determine who plays on women's teams. Schools and colleges that take federal funds have no right to “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” -- or force them to see unclothes males in the locker room -- the order declares. It reverses one signed by President Biden on his first day in office.

The move is very popular: 79 percent of Americans say transgender athletes shouldn't compete on women's teams, according to a recent New York Times poll.

President Trump kept his promise to bar transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports teams.

Parents have moved to rightward, writes Erika Sanzi of Parents Defending Education on RealClear Education. Most are fed up with "assigned-at-birth" males on girls' teams and in girls' restrooms. They don't want LGBTQ lessons in elementary school.  

Many parents are also frustrated with DEI and welcome Trump's order banning "harmful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, she writes. They have "hopes of restoring sanity in their children’s classrooms."

Ninety percent of parents want schools to focus on core subjects, such as math, reading, writing, science, and social studies, to "improve the quality of public education," according to a Parents Defending Education poll, she writes.

Seventy-seven percent of parents "oppose allowing males, who identify as females, to use female bathrooms and locker rooms and vice versa," Sanzi writes. That ranges from 92 percent of Republicans to 58 percent of Democrats.

Most parents thought "equity" was a reasonable goal, "until they saw how their school district applied it," she writes. "Instead of fairness, it meant eliminating honors classes, doling out different disciplinary consequences based on race, and giving credit for school work that was never even turned in."

That's unpopular, according to the poll. "Eighty-two percent of parents, including 75 percent of Democrats, believe disciplinary consequences should be the same for all students, regardless of race," and "72 percent of parents, including 58 percent of Democrats, oppose 'grading for equity'."

Only 24 percent of Americans are satisfied with the quality of public education, while 73 percent are unsatisfied, according to a recent Gallup poll. That's a record low. By contrast, 63 percent are satisfied with our military preparedness and 62 percent with the quality of life.