Leftist policymakers in Connecticut are placing metaphorical “Parents Not Welcome” signs on our state’s classroom doors by allowing teachers to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about their communications with students.
Since this school session began on Jan. 4, the majority party in the General Assembly has introduced multiple bills which they say are to protect teachers from “harassment” based on ideological differences. They also aim to limit parental access to teacher-student communications.
The bills are in reaction to the rise of education as a national public policy issue, after local school board meetings became a hotbed of controversy over issues including masking, school closures and inadequate online learning, an obsession with skin color, so-called equity, and “social justice.”
Meanwhile, satisfaction with K-12 education in the United States has flipped from positive to negative — from 51 percent satisfied versus 47 percent dissatisfied in 2019 to 42 percent satisfied versus 55 percent dissatisfied in 2022. Nationwide reading and mathematics test scores have dropped considerably as a result of pandemic lockdowns; scores dropped even faster than the national average in Connecticut.
In response to increased parental involvement in school-related issues, the legislative majority is doubling down. Several bills this session seem intended to stymie parents’ efforts to discover what is happening in their children’s schools.
To enable teachers to evade FOIA requests, the majority proposed H.B. 6192, known as “An Act Concerning the Nondisclosure of Certain Communications between Teachers and Students.” The bill would exclude from the “definition of public
