Parents have been kept in the dark about how far behind their kids are in school. The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are devastating for our students, including many who are just starting high school and don’t have time to waste. 

We all agree the stakes have never been higher. The COVID-19 pandemic widened educational and economic inequality.

As the mother of five boys who struggled during school closures, and as we continue to navigate today’s education system, worries about their future trajectories are never far from my mind. As the president of the National Parents Union (NPU), I spent the last three years in constant communication with families nationwide. Parents are sending a message loud and clear: we want better, more accurate information about our kids.

about their children’s educational and life experiences and what it means for them long-term. 

The more parents learn about the state of education, the more concerned they become and for good reason: the kids are not alright. Parents widely agree that America’s education system is in despair.

• label it a major problem that students are still behind academically, according to the Nation’s Report Card, including 34% who say it’s a crisis.
• agree the mental health challenges among children is a major problem, including 34% who say it’s a crisis. 
• believe America’s education system needs to be overhauled.

We want policymakers to acknowledge the pandemic’s impact on our children’s learning and development, and comprehensively address the challenges facing our education system to ensure students fully recover with pathways to economic mobility. Elected leaders and education decision makers must move past culture wars, rhetoric, and finger pointing with legislation and policies that reflect the reimagined experience parents want for their kids.

Policymakers can contribute to a more equitable, resilient education system with some practical solutions. These proposals are based on over decades and innovative approaches developed during the pandemic. They are aligned with what parents want for their children. 

First, give parents a seat at the table

Parents should be partners with schools from the beginning: participating in strategic planning, budgeting, leadership changes, and contract negotiations. It’s not enough to ask them for permission after decisions have already been made. Only collaboratively can we create a path forward. 

After our heroic leadership as facilitators of our own children’s educations and powerful partners in school reopening and recovery, we expect to continue to be involved in decision making and want a say in how education will be reimagined. Over the past few years, we established greater transparency and communication with policymakers about strategies for addressing today’s challenges. We must continue to deepen these efforts.

As the clock runs down on billions in financial aid, we need to examine what is working and what isn’t. We’re looking at an abrupt funding stop and deep cuts beginning in the 2024- 25 school year and our most vulnerable students will suffer when the fiscal cliff hits. This is the moment to rethink how we teach and finance education.

Parents want , as well as additional educational and mental health support.

Enter a new age of honesty and transparency

Policymakers and educators need to welcome a new age of honesty and transparency with parents, families, and communities. Assessment data plays a critical role in driving student progress by providing educators with a clear picture of learning and identifying areas for additional interventions and investments. 

• would like their child’s teachers to discuss their child’s performance and progress with them more often.

Data helps teachers individualize instruction and ensure all students reach their full potential. Tracking student progress over time allows educators to identify patterns in student learning and adjust instructional strategies as needed. We must also be flexible to change when plans do not yield the results our children deserve. 

Offer diverse pathways

With all of its complex challenges, the pandemic also provided the opportunity to create more flexibility in the education system. It highlighted the limitations of traditional classroom-based learning and the need for alternative approaches. Now we are hungry for more options for remote learning, hybrid learning models, and other approaches that will accommodate the diverse needs of children and families.

• want to have a personalized pathway plan for their child, outlining classes they could take in K-12 to help them achieve their individual career or college goals.

Any expectation that families will continue to conform to an outdated school model holds us all back. The path forward is clear for parents. 

• said K-12 schools should change the way they teach students reading and math to line up with what the newest research says is best practice.
• say schools should do more to have school schedules and calendars reflect research on how and when kids learn best.
• say schools should do more to provide opportunities for additional learning time, such as after-school or summer academic programs.

Urgent support for teens

Our teens need more support to ensure they aren’t simply pushed out before we’ve adequately prepared them to launch. 

• say schools should do more to ensure college-bound students and students who choose different pathways have equally good opportunities to prepare for their future while in high school.

Many of our youth have lost out on important opportunities including internships, job shadowing, or other career-related experiences over the last several years. They struggle with depleted family resources and basic needs, preventing them from pursuing postsecondary education and training opportunities. 

• support student loan relief as a tactic for economic mobility.

Will families still be willing to take on unending debt to pay for tuition in our colleges and universities as a good investment for our children in the future? Multiple recent surveys suggest they won’t.

Increased access to alternative opportunities for students to gain valuable career experience— including virtual internships, work-based and skills-based learning opportunities, adult education programs, vocational training, and more—will help prepare students for the future.

Prioritize mental health

In addition to academic support, parents want policymakers to prioritize students’ mental health and social-emotional well-being.

• believe policymakers need to prioritize addressing their children’s mental health needs. 

The pandemic took a toll on our students’ mental health, increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns. We want to see more funding and long-term investments in school based mental health and social-emotional resources.

Needed: Transformational change

We must put an end to petty political fights, institutional racism, an antiquated status quo, and policies that prioritize adults over kids and instead collaboratively address the transformational changes our children and families need. NPU will continue to work with lawmakers on key priorities to improve the quality of life for families across the country. Now is the moment for elected leaders and education decision-makers to act with bold urgency and a renewed commitment to courageous conversations about how our nation’s schools can truly change—systematically and thoroughly. Parents will be watching.

See more from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and its .

This is incredibly important for the sustainability of the public charter and parental choice schools that serve nearly half of all Milwaukee students, as they have historically received an average of 25% to 35% less in per-pupil funding than traditional district schools.

Thousands of parents rallied to make this win for Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s kids possible. Families knew something had to be done to deliver equal funding for their children and close the gaps that were robbing their kids of opportunities and sapping their educational outcomes. 

Through this deal, public charter schools will receive a per-pupil funding increase of more than $2,500, and private schools will receive $2,000 to $4,000 more per child. This investment is long overdue. Milwaukee was one of the birthplaces of private school choice in the late 1980s and charter schools in the early 1990s. The funding gaps have existed since the inception of both programs but have grown wider in the past five years, even as the students’ needs have grown due to the pandemic.

Together with a broad coalition of partners, has been working in a sustained, bipartisan effort to transform school funding in Wisconsin. This required effective, direct advocacy — and that meant getting parents involved from day one.

We started this year by giving school leaders financial support and training for nine family liaisons, who were crucial in ensuring that parents understood the legislative lay of the land and how to engage with lawmakers effectively. Families learned about the per-pupil funding gap and its impact on school budgets, how the state budget process works, who the key legislators and decisionmakers were, how to develop and share their personal testimonies and how to hold a meeting with elected officials and press them on key issues.

Our team also helped ensure families could attend legislative committee meetings, coordinating with school leaders and legislative staff on hosting parent-led at their schools with key legislators – members of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, education committee members and Milwaukee legislators — and providing Zoom access for parents who could not attend in person.

We worked with over 1,000 parents and family members who were fired up on the issue of unequal funding. These parents led meetings with 15 legislators and organized a letter-writing campaign to legislators on the finance committee, state Senate and Assembly leaders of both parties, the governor’s office and Milwaukee’s mayor. In total, more than 5,500 letters were sent from more than 600 parents. Busloads of families drove for hours to rally outside legislative hearings, and more than 50 parents before the finance committee.

Lawmakers listened. During the debate on the bill, legislators of both parties cited their engagements with parents as a critical factor in their vote to support increased funding. 

Rep. Robert Wittke spoke on the Assembly floor about the impact of his visits to schools and shared the promise he had made at one of our parent-led meetings: “I will keep a commitment that I made to 15 mothers that I sat down and talked with at the Rocketship school in Milwaukee. Their only parting words to me were that they wanted equalized funding so that their children and this school could continue to grow, and serve all of their children moving forward.”

Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August asked, “How can any one of us look these parents in the eye and tell them no?” 

After meeting with several parents, state Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Milwaukee Democrat, delivered a passionate floor speech, revealing that she had utilized the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program to enroll her child in a private school. “I’m not going to sit up here and consider rooting for charter or public or choice,” she said. “I’m not going to sit up here and make our children winners and losers. Because if they’re coming from communities where their access to public education is failing, they have already lost.” 

For Milwaukee’s public charter and private schools, this funding increase will help keep the doors open — especially critical after in Milwaukee have in the last three years due to financial shortfalls. national education leader and founder of the a charter school in Milwaukee, said it best during his testimony in front of the Assembly Education Committee: “The reason this is a lifeblood issue for us — this bill — is because we can’t continue to raise $600,000 a year. It’s not sustainable.”

It will help address pay gaps for Milwaukee educators, ensuring that schools are able to recruit and retain diverse, high-quality faculty and staff. And it will help stabilize our city’s ecosystem of high-quality school options while expanding access for even more families. This win shows what is possible when schools and organizations get parents involved and amplify their voices — not just at the local level, but all the way to the state Capitol and beyond.

“You better listen,” she said emphatically. “You better listen to what parents are telling you. Did we just see the elections that happened this fall? People who are out of step on charter schools and are running for elective office are going to be out of office.”

Veney is Senior VP of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which recently analyzed data from 42 states showing an influx of 240,000 students into charter schools during the 2020-2021 school year – the highest growth seen in six years. 

“Parents are holding us all accountable,” she added. “They are demanding more for their kids. We need more, not fewer public school options. We need to equip all public schools to have the nimbleness and the flexibility that we see in the charter sector.”

Veney expressed these views during an online panel Wednesdy presented by The 74 and the Reinventing America’s Schools project of the Progressive Policy Institute. Listening to parents – so many of whom were frustrated and angered by how their schools reacted to COVID – was among the central themes of the discussion.

Jessica Sutter, who represents Ward 6 on the District of Columbia State Board of Education, said, “Parents made a lot of different choices during the pandemic,” noting that her ward saw a 950-student increase in charter school enrollment and a 300-student increase in homeschooling. 

“Parents are looking for schools that are responsive to them,” she said. “Watching parents move, they’re moving to places where they feel like the school heard them and reached out to say, ‘what kind of measures do we need to have in place to make you feel safe about sending your children back to the building; what kind of communication is going to be helpful this year, post-pandemic, knowing how difficult last year was for you and your students?’”

“And we saw really wonderful things from some of our public charter schools in making that happen,” Sutter said. “We saw Friendship Public Charter Schools reaching out to parents, saying, ‘we’re going to do onsite testing for 100 percent of students and faculty every day,’ and they did that before that was the common practice citywide.”

Katrina Merkerson, a mother from Birmingham, Ala., spoke about moving her son into the i3 Academy during the height of uncertainty about the pandemic in the summer of 2020. “This was July; school was slated to start the first week of August and there were no answers coming from the district; none at all,” she said.

A friend told her about i3 Academy, and after going through the enrollment process, Merkerson said, “It was absolutely the best decision that I made for my son.”

“In the pandemic,” she said, “parents were scrambling around because nobody knew what was going to happen. But i3 Academy had a plan in place already.” She said that the school stayed open throughout the pandemic and that her son is thriving in his education. “He’s a 6th-grader now at the middle school, and he is just off the chain.”

A.J. Crabill, the Deputy Commissioner for Governance of the Texas Education Agency, said has not seen traditional public schools innovating ways to improve student achievement at the systemic level. “Most of the innovation that I’ve seen has been: how do we educate in the middle of a pandemic.”

He added: “My sense is that the only way that traditional public schools see a significant resurgence in enrollment is through improving the quality of instruction. I don’t think there are gimmicks that work. I think either we have schools that dramatically demonstrate improvement in student outcomes or we don’t. 

“And whether they be charter schools or traditional district schools, the ones that can demonstrate improvements, I hope, will grow…and the ones who can’t I hope will go away.”

Crabill also noted how critically important it is for all schools to learn from this pandemic. “As I visit with professors and researchers across the country, many are already looking at how can we dig into the data that the pandemic provides to learn what can we do from a policy level in public education…. What are the strategies that work and what are the strategies that don’t work?”

“I suspect,” he added, “the schools that had more in-person instruction are going to show greater results, and that’s going to be a clear policy description for future pandemics. I think of this as our starter pandemic.”

Advocacy groups formed on all sides of the political spectrum with some designed to address long-standing inequities and others meant to push back against what members considered a liberal agenda.

Right-leaning parents who oppose COVID restrictions in schools and the teaching of systemic racism are seen as key to Republican in the Virginia governor’s race and are already being counted as a in the 2022 midterms. 

Tina Descovich is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a high-profile and fast-growing parents’ rights organization founded in January. The group boasts 140 chapters in 32 states with roughly 60,000 active members, with 24,000 members in July. 

While Descovich pushes back at descriptions of Moms for Liberty as being solely conservative, many of its members have publicly railed against mask mandates, vaccine requirements and the teaching of critical race theory.

Descovich, who served four years on the Brevard Public Schools Board of Education in Florida before in 2020, said she was prompted to start the organization after observing how poorly some members of her community — and others throughout the country — were treated by school administrators when they tried to address hot-button issues surrounding COVID.

ATTENTION School Boards, City Officials, State Legislators, Governors, Congressmen, and every single unelected bureaucrat in between, this message is for YOU.

— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty)

Moms for Liberty members, wearing shirts emblazoned with the group’s logo in white lettering and its increasingly recognizable catchphrase, have been attending school board meetings in force across the country, repudiating not only pandemic-related restrictions but many schools’ efforts around equity and inclusion. 

Descovich believes their viewpoints are valuable and the discourse long overdue.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

The 74: Why do you think Moms for Liberty has had such success in such a short timeframe?

Descovich: We filled a need, just like any other organization or business or anyone that has success when they … create a way to help people with the problem that they have. And so again, we saw parents kind of floundering not knowing what to do to stand up for their children. We kind of gave them a model and a little background information from experiences that we had had over the previous four years and people are finding that to be helpful.

What are some of the unifying principles among your members?

Our mission is to empower parents to stand up and reclaim their parental rights at all levels of government. Right now, that seems to be really focused on public education because of the things that families have faced over the last two years. The principle that ties us all together is that we love our children, we care for our children and we believe that we are the best decision-makers for our children.

Of course, some people believe it is their fundamental right to send their child to a school with vaccine and face mask mandates. They also love their children and want to protect them.

Yeah, I agree with what you’re saying. And I think everybody deserves a voice in the conversation. What we were seeing was that as COVID was unfolding and 2020 was happening, those that disagreed with what you just said were being silenced. I was watching it happening in my own school board. I remember one specific mom getting up and talking about concerns she had about her child and literally getting heckled from the back of the room. I watched her walk out of our school boardroom in tears. And so they felt, you know, marginalized and like their voices shouldn’t be heard.

Is there a “happy medium” in terms of vaccines or mask mandates? People look at these issues as absolute.

I do believe we can live in a world where people get to choose what is best for them. Those that want to continue to mask because they’re more vulnerable, that is their right. And there’s different quality of masks. They could be in an N-95 mask … They can be six feet away from those that choose not to mask or have been vaccinated and feel like they don’t need to mask anymore or have had COVID. Every person needs to make the decision that is best for them.

Much of what you said about the founding of your organization — how it sprang up in response to parents not being heard — is actually in line with other parent groups on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Yet your group has a conservative political bent. How did that happen?

I think because of the issues of today … but to assume we’re conservative, I know that’s how we’ve been branded, locally and nationally. I did an unscientific survey of our chapter chairs a couple of weeks ago … and we have quite a few that are independents, one Democrat. So, the idea that … only conservative parents should be part of our organization … it’s just false. We want better educational outcomes for all children. And if there’s a segment of our organization that wants to fight for, you know, our Title I schools to get more services, we will gladly support them. We welcome them. We want to help with that fight.

But if a parent wanted the right to stand up and say, “We need a mask mandate,” or “We need mandatory vaccines,” they could not be part of your organization, correct?

So, I think that we would diverge when it came down to the issues of individual liberty. I mean, our title is Moms for Liberty. So … once a parent wants to make decisions for other children, and force things on them, I think that’s where it would divert and our values would separate. If they want to go in and fight for … a better curriculum that targets a certain demographic, you know, we would support that all day long.

What if you had a mom who wanted their child to learn about Ruby Bridges and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Is that something Moms for Liberty would appreciate?

One hundred percent. Yes.

Even though you have members within your organization fighting to take those same materials out of children’s hands?

Yeah, I think you’re just looking at headlines. You’re probably talking about They went through every book, every piece of curriculum for English language arts, from K-6, and they made a huge spreadsheet. They put, I think, 1,000 hours into that and they logged all of their concerns. As a parent, they have the right to do that. What I have seen from that chapter is they have legitimate concerns about the grade level that some of the stuff is introduced … Nobody that I know of in our group wants to not teach about Martin Luther King or Ruby Bridges for that matter … I think all parents and community members should have open minds, open hearts, open conversations. If you can’t have that and people just want to label somebody a racist or a bigot or these names because they don’t want to hear anybody else’s input, I think that’s unfortunate — and it will not move us forward.

Does your organization take a stance on critical race theory?

Nationally, we have not officially taken a stance on any issue. We try to support our local chapters and things that they’re fighting for, helping them get exposure and uncover issues that they want to bring to light.

What are you most proud of in terms of your membership? Is there anything you’re seeing from some of your members and their approach to school board officials that you would discourage?

So, we…use the term “joyful warriors” when we talk about Moms for Liberty. We want that word to resonate with all of our members. We want them to feel confident to stand up for their children and what they’re seeing and what they believe. But we want to be … the most kind, most joyful protesters out there by any stretch of the imagination. We get a lot of flak for other organizations and other parents and what they’re doing. But what I see our chapter chairs doing — and what I’ve been trying to share a little bit more of on social media — is doing drives for school supplies … I’ve seen them do things to try to support the schools and the administrators … that are really working hard to educate our children … We have chapters that are engaging with their school boards in a very productive way. They have built relationships with them. They’re doing meetings with them, one on one, showing them their concerns and … things are being handled. That’s not the stuff that makes the news and makes the limelight. And that’s the ultimate goal. A lot of the stuff that’s been catchy and flashy these days, is where the relationship starts breaking down and people have to come to the meetings and things are getting a little bit more heated.

Some school board meetings have become particularly vitriolic. The National School Boards Association recently walked back remarks about domestic terrorism, but I think we would both agree that the threats against school staff are really frightening. I would imagine that is not something you would support.

We absolutely do not support that in any way, shape, or form. If any of our members act in that manner, they will be removed from our organization. But to add to that, this isn’t anything new. Tiffany [Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice] and I both served for four years on our school boards, and we could (share) all of the things that we went through: the threats, the constant harassment … I’m shocked at maybe the level of exposure it’s getting right now. Maybe it’s more widespread than it ever has been. But here in Florida and Brevard County and in Indian River County … Tiffany and myself can attest to threats that have been happening for a lot of years.

Have you ever felt truly frightened by someone who you felt was going to go after your life, your job or your family?

I can show you … messages from strangers that say, “I hope to inject your family with COVID. I’m going to make sure your kids get sick.” This was back in 2020. We (the school board) were having open public discussions about opening schools and things of that nature. If you want to go back a couple of years prior to that when I was on the school board right after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre … and we were debating publicly here if we wanted to have guardians armed in our schools and the threats that I received during that time. Yes, it was scary. Just like school board members now, I had to have a police escort in and out of … a town hall that we had here. So, to me, this is nothing new. We’ve experienced it firsthand. It’s unacceptable. It’s inappropriate behavior. It is never good. We do not support it. We speak out against it. And we will remove any member … that acts in that manner.

Regarding the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre, what sparked those threats against you?

I was supporting arming employees. I need to say this very carefully because I got branded as someone that wanted to arm teachers. That was not the case. At the time, the state legislature here in Florida had made a provision that allowed, because we did not have enough school security officers … and the sheriff and the local municipalities did not have enough employees to give our schools … and there was a state mandate that we had to have an armed person in each school … they made a provision that you could train someone through your local sheriff’s department that was former law enforcement or former military that worked currently in the school. They could voluntarily go through the six-week training, and then be able to conceal carry in the schools to protect the school in case of an active shooter. I was very interested in that program … and that’s what brought on that vitriol.

And then there was another instance during the pandemic that your family was being threatened?

Yeah, I believe those started when I was pushing to open schools.

And were you the only board member pushing to open at that time?

I don’t remember off the top of my head … This was the summer of 2020. Schools around the country were still closed. This is before the governor said we were going to open schools here. So, we as the school board felt like it was our decision if we were going to open or not…We all moved all over the spectrum during these discussions and debates.

Some people might look at groups like yours and say, “I’m uncomfortable with parents, many of whom have no background in education, making decisions that impact all children in the district, with their wishes supplanting people who have devoted their entire lives to education.” What makes parents qualified to do what they are doing now across the country?

So, there’s no one that knows my child better than I. When it comes to all these decisions, not just curriculum, but in anything, you know, I have been blessed with my children. And it is not only my right, but my responsibility to make sure that the best is provided for them in every fashion. And, you know, I think it’s important to look at all sides. I think it’s important to listen to the experts that have done these studies. But the ultimate and final decision on my child should be made by the parents.

One of your Moms for Liberty organizers recently wished for a mass exodus from the public schools and a turn toward homeschooling. Has that come up throughout your chapters?

That is not our national stance at all. As an organization, we, Tiffany and I, have been very clear from Day One, we want to fix public education. We think it is vital that America has, you know, an excellent, best-in-the-world public education system. And we think that will be attained by parents being awake, involved, engaged. I mean, we know every study shows, when parents are involved in their children’s education, scores, grades, the outcomes are … always better.

What is your goal politically? Do you have political aspirations for your members beyond the school board?

The places where we have good relationships with our school board members, I think, you know, that’s wonderful. That’s the ultimate goal. But when you have school board members that will not listen, that are trying to silence parents, silence the public and go against a parent’s right to have input on what their child is learning and how they’re being raised, then yes, I hope our members will decide and choose to go run and fill that seat.

So much of the Virginia governor’s race is focused on education. What is Moms for Liberty’s role in this critical race? Is your group becoming politically active or trying to get out the vote?

No, we have no involvement in that race whatsoever. We will continue to just advocate for parents and candidates that align with standing up for parental rights.

As an organization, Moms for Liberty has not come out for a particular gubernatorial candidate?

We’ve given counsel and direction to all of our chapters that they are allowed to endorse candidates — but only in school board races.

Is there any way for your group to become a political organization?

We are a registered nonprofit . So, we cannot get all in for political activism in that way. We are allowed to be issue based … parental rights focus at all times. Now, we are considering maybe branching out … with maybe a more political arm forming in that area in the future.

How is your organization funded? And what’s your budget?

We are still funded by mostly just small donors.

You don’t have a big donor, right, like the Koch brothers or some other major conservative group?

We’e seen all the national stuff that says, you know, we’re part of this conservative affiliation with Koch brothers behind us. And that’s completely untrue. I don’t know the Koch brothers. I actually Googled them for the first time the other day. We do sell a lot of T-shirts. [The group sells merchandise on its website from $10 to $75]. That’s our biggest funding source right now. Our annual budget … just broke $150,000.

And what will that money be used for?

A lot of it goes back into buying more products. But we’re using it to fund the national organization, web development, data management, things of that nature … We just opened a little tiny office here in Brevard County … People have just been very generous with everything from their money to supporting our products to just giving us things that we need to be able to move forward.