If you have a child in the public school system in MA and you don’t receive the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) “Commissioner’s Weekly Update” emails, we recommend that you sign up. It’s the best way to stay informed about the important goings-on at DESE.
And by “important goings-on,” we mean, all the ways the education bureaucrats in MA are trying to push its extreme progressive agenda on parents and families.
For instance, the DESE Commissioner’s weekly update on January 16th announced a professional development session for district and school administrators that MA parents should be aware of. The workshop was focused on gender and inclusive practices in early childhood and the elementary years.
Yes, you read that right. DESE is training teachers and school officials on ways to perpetuate the transgender lie with the youngest of students, starting in Pre-K.
The obvious problem with this workshop is that it’s wholly inappropriate for any school staff to discuss gender identity with kids who are young enough to still believe in the Tooth Fairy. But on top of the general objectional nature of the topic of the training, parents need to be wise to the fact that DESE’s workshop highlighted “laws, policies, best practices, and resources.”
This is important to point out because DESE seems to make a habit of presenting their wishes as mandates, and school districts often take the bait. MFI has seen this happen repeatedly since the passing of the updated Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework in September 2023. In fact, MFI received so many inquiries from parents asking if the new Framework was mandated because that’s what their school officials were telling them, that we created a PDF explaining what DESE is allowed to demand of school districts, and what they are NOT.
We have seen other examples of DESE overstepping their bounds (or districts blaming their bad behavior on DESE) as well. To learn more, check out this Substack post from Massachusetts Informed Parents here.
Last week’s DESE training was yet another opportunity for an unelected governmental body to assume more control than they should have, and for district leaders to uncritically accept DESE’s so-called “best practices” when talking to small children about gender and sexual orientation. It appears that those controlling the MA public school system are more interested in ideological activism than respecting the rights of the parents to raise their children in accordance with their own values and beliefs.
So, parents, what can you do to protect your children? Here are some recommendations:
- Stay informed. Subscribe to the Massachusetts Informed Parents (MIP) Substack here. Join MIP on Facebook here. And follow MIP on Twitter/X here.
- Inform others. Find out if your local district or child’s teacher participated in DESE’s training referenced above. Ask questions, like whether your district will be implementing what they learned and how it will impact students. Tell your friends and neighbors what you find out and let MFI know too by sending an email to [email protected].
- Opt your child out of sex ed and surveys. Opting out won’t protect your child from everything, but it’s a necessary first step. Visit the OPT OUT page on our website to learn about your rights as a parent and for sample letters you can use.
- Look for other schooling options. Tired of the fight to protect your child from DESE’s radical agenda and want to opt-out altogether? Check out our new Education Alternatives page.
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