“Shut up,” he explained.
That was the response from New Hampshire state Rep. Tommy Hoyt when a voter asked him to support “Parents Bill of Rights” legislation when it came up for a vote. Hoyt, a Democrat endorsed by the teachers union, declined — and not-so-politely.
“Do you know why children’s results tanked during covid? Their parents were incompetent teachers. Do your children a favor, let the teachers teach, and shut up. You’re clearly no professional,” Hoyt wrote in an email.
Dismissing parents as incompetent and telling them to “shut up” may not sound like smart politics, but Hoyt is hardly alone. In the wake of what some are calling a parents’ revolution, teachers unions and their Democratic Party allies are pushing back with views on moms and dads that don’t appear designed to make friends or influence voters.
Just a few days before Hoyt’s comments, a Georgia state Rep. Lydia Glaize (D) objected to an Education Freedom Account-style program being considered in the legislature.
“I see parents being able to direct their child’s education, and they are already in the lower 25-percentile, meaning a lot of those parents did not finish high school – could not finish their own education,” the Democrat said. “I am extremely concerned that we would put money in…the hands of parents who are not qualified to make those decisions.”
Parents are too dumb (“lower 25-percentile”) to make decisions about their own children’s education? It’s a refrain heard more and more as school choice programs pick up steam across the U.S.
“While none of us are particularly comfortable saying, ‘I don’t trust parents,’ let’s keep in mind that parents are just people — the same people who various Americans don’t trust to make decisions about issues such as vaccines, abortion, gun ownership, marriage, voting, and drug use,” wrote Kevin Welner, co-founder and director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s School of Education. Welner is the author of the book “The School Voucher Illusion.”
And then there’s U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona who tweeted: “Teachers know what is best for their kids because they are with them every day. We must trust teachers.”
The immediate answer from some parents: “Whose kids?”
This is the debate over parents’ rights in a nutshell: Who should have the final authority over minor children, their parents, or the educators hired to teach them?
In the case of the New Hampshire law, some Granite State schools have a policy of not telling parents about their children’s behavior at school regarding sex and gender. If the student is asking to be addressed by a different name, or identifying as a gender different from their biological sex, the adults who work at the school — teachers, administrators, coaches, etc. — keep it a secret from parents, even if the mom or dad ask them about it.
And when voters asked him about his position, he told them to “shut up.”
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at School Choice Now, says this treatment of parents has become par for the education course.
“Representative Hoyt let the mask slip. These socialists think they know better than parents,” DeAngelis said. “They despise the very notion of parental rights because they really believe kids belong to the government.”
Hoyt offered a semi-apology after news broke about his comments.
“The way I feel is that children’s test scores in school performance dropped off drastically was because they didn’t have teachers. And the parents that thought, ‘We can replace them and can tell them what to do,’ that was not effective. I probably could have used better words,” Hoyt said.
But, DeAngelis predicts, it’s parents who will have the last word — at the ballot box.
“You would have thought the Democrats would have learned something from Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s campaign blunder. Well, apparently not. Tommy Hoyt just told [former Virginia Governor] Terry McAuliffe to ‘hold my beer.’
“When school choice opponents tell you who they are, believe them,” DeAngelis said.
SOME teachers are qualified to teach. MANY are not! SOME parents could work to keep up the teachers’ job during Covid. MANY were working too hard to keep food on the table to do so. It’s not that parents want to teach there kids the academics, it’s just that they don’t want them to be taught many ‘other’ things which are inappropriate for kids. They need to learn MATH – not the proper way to cross dress. They need to learn SCIENCE – not that they can change their sex. They need to learn that some HISTORY was bad as well as good – not destroy it so as not to be able to learn from it. They need to be taught – not indoctrinated. Teachers need to be adults – not buddies to their students.
Kids had miserable test scores because the feckless, spineless bureaucrats that were supposed to be looking out for them refused to stand up to King Fauci and the feds who kicked them all out of school for more than a year. Did the schools offer the parents access to the textbooks or supplies? No! Did the teachers offer to come to homes to help with problems that occurred because of remote education? No! Did teachers who were staying home twiddling their thumbs offer up their salaries so kids could pay to access online learning programs and tutors who weren’t germ phobic? No. No. No constructive help was offered, just fear, loathing and hatred of parents who were pulling their hair out in frustration at having their kids educations cut short. I am a retired teacher and I’m disgusted with the behavior of the unions and the teachers…shameful conduct. And now to be lying about it, saying they never wanted to shut down the schools and tried oh, so hard to get them opened again…ugh.
NO Get parents involved day 1
Would love to see voters GET RID OF THIS PERSON. But will they!! We often don’t learn
A representative for the people, typical self-serving dem.
If parents are to dumb to make decisions on their child’s education, how does a child have the capability to decide what sex they want to be? Just asking! Dumb politicians!
Maybe it would be a good idea for some of these “well educated people “ to ask Dr. Ben Carson his thoughts on this subject. Or the history teachers could do a deep study on what was going on in Germany leading up to WW2!
I see these educators and representatives as clueless. They are willing to follow misguided advice from those who think they know. All I see is these educators have put themselves on a pedestal and they ‘Know it all.” Sometimes the more academia you are the stupider you are. I would rather have common sense and think for myself. I don’t need a politician to tell me what to do. They can’t even run the government in a pleasing cohesive manner. Look at the debt they want to incur on the citizens, And then you tell me you “Know it All.” Bunch of crack pots. What a bunch of numb nuts.
As long as people are stupid enough to keep voting for the people from the same party that has continuously done everything in its power to undermine and destroy the country from within, why should anyone on the left feel they need to change? Seriously! If you want to change the direction of the country, make better choices and push back harder at every opportunity.
Representative Hoyt in this article felt comfortable saying the quiet part out loud, because he doesn’t fear any backlash from his voter base. His position is secure as long as the teachers union continues to funnel millions of dollars into his re-election campaign and the members of the teachers union in his state continue to vote 100% in lock-step with what the union wants.
Democrat politicians are increasingly willing to say the quiet part out loud to Americans in general, because they generally don’t fear the public anymore from the perspective of voting them out of office. That’s a clear sign the power dynamic in this country has shifted and that’s not a good thing. That is how you end up waking up one morning to a totalitarian government announcing they have taken control for your own good. History is littered with such examples.
The teachers union (syndicate) was organized to protects the incompetent and unwilling teacher at the expense of your children. There are great teachers out there but they’ don’t need a teachers syndicate to protect them. Their great work is their protection.
Who or what does he think he is? Where are the demands for his resignation?
Just another ‘woke jack*ss from the woke party of jack*sses. No woke A** is going to tell me what to teach my kids. He and those like him in other states is why my granddaughter took all of her kids out of public schools and they are home schooled and doing much better.
We need to clean house of WOKE indoctrinating teachers teaching our kids Marxist
propaganda instead of what they desperately need to succeed in life. There should be NO MORE TENURE FOR TEACHERS!! When they start pushing Communism and Marxism after they become “tenured” they cannot be FIRED!! Teachers should be gotten rid of AT ANY TIME they veer off the path of solid education and into brainwashing without parental knowledge. Save our kids!! Get rid of indoctrinating, propaganda-pushing teachers!!
Any politician who tells parents to “shut up” about the child’s education should NEVER be elected to any public office ever again. It is a parent’s right and duty to direct the education of their children. Colleges and universities are turning out teachers who have been so brain washed by Marxist programing to destroy our children that they should not have control of anything.
FYI: The federal Department of Education is unconstitutional. The U. S. Constitution left education to the states and We the People by NOT listing education in the enumerated responsibilities of federal government. Teacher’s Unions have been destroying education every since they were allowed to unionize teachers. When I was a student it was illegal to unionize IF your paycheck was funded by taxes.
Ok, just pulled my kids out of public school. You won’t hear from me again. No more yes votes on school bonds.
Rep. Tommy Hoyt is just another example of an idiot politician. These type of folks think they are the same as the leaders of China or North Korea. We the people need to get rid of them ASAP.
what a loser. does he buy their clothes, shoes or pay for their medical bills, does he put food on the table, of course not, then he needs to shut the f*** up.
Do anybody notice that democrats are the ones saying I know more how to treat a child than their parents!!!!!!!!
Parents should line up on this puke and each slap the fool as they pass by. The punk has no redeeming qualities except as a punching bag. It is plain common sense for all to see that democrats are not nor will ever be educators,
If a guy like that told me to shut up,he would have a fight on his hands. I would whip his ass to kingdom come.
What a bunch of gaslighting.
The FASCIST liberals need to SHUT UP. The children BELONG to the parents and the parents have every right to oversee their child’s education and how to raise their own children.
It is NOT the government’s responsibility or business to tell parents how to raise their children.
All this FASCIST crap started with the clinton’s then obama, and now DICTATOR Beijing biden telling parents that they know better than the parents do on how to raise their own children which is BS and INDOCTRINATION of the parents and children.
Other words… OBEY without question.
There are exceptions to every rule. I believe most parents know what education guide lines their children need to survive today’s world. Our government has sold our education system to the unions. Unions main objective is profit not education.
I pray that ANY parent who is treated with such disrespect from an EMPLOYEE who works for them will stand up and DEMAND their removal.
Immediately start a campaign to expose,embarras and throw them out!
Who do these LOSERS think they are?
If they keep voting people like him into office they don’t have any right to complain!
Vote out any Ahol who talk to any parent like this. They need to find out who they “work for”. Teacher unions should not be allowed! Tenure should not be allowed! Teachers that do not teach as they did during Covid, they should have been fired!
Scools
But, DeAngelis predicts, it’s parents who will have the last word — at the ballot box.Keep voting for democrats and you will continue to get what you’ve always got.