Parental rights are becoming one of the defining issues for 2024. Building from Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 gubernatorial victory in Virginia, school boards races and educational initiatives have become some of the most fiercely contested areas on local and state ballots. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Cal.) weighed in this week into the area with a curious attack on parents demanding more say in the education of their children. The California Democrat insisted that it is akin to “Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials?” These were curious analogies to draw since patients and clients are in charge of the key decisions in their surgeries and trials. What Rep. Swalwell is missing is called informed consent.
Swalwell is a lawyer with a degree from the University of Maryland Law School.
He took to Twitter to lash out against parents who dare challenge aspects of the education of their children. The tweet came in response to South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott saying that Republicans intend to put “parents back in charge of their kids’ education.” Swalwell declared such a notion to be ridiculous:
“Please tell me what I’m missing here. What are we doing next? Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials? When did we stop trusting experts. … This is so stupid.”
As a threshold matter, it is important to note that parents have always had a say in the education of their children. School boards are invested with the authority to dictate changes in curriculum and teaching policies.
Indeed, in Meyer v. Nebraska (1925), the Court struck down a state law prohibiting instruction in German. In the decision, it stressed that parental roles in the education of their children was an essential part of the protections under the Constitution’s Due Process Clause: the right “to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”
Putting that historical and constitutional context aside, Rep. Swalwell is equally mistaken in his analogies to the medical and legal professions. In reality, patients and clients do control major decisions over their cases. Since he asked for assistance, let’s deal with each in turn.
Patients and Medical Consent
From the outset, the argument that patients do not make the key decisions on their own medical care is a bit incongruous given Swalwell’s support for abortion rights without any limits. (Swalwell was widely criticized for a campaign commercial showing a women being arrested at a restaurant by police with guns drawn under suspicion of having an abortion). While women clearly consult with doctors, the whole premise of “my body, my choice” is that these decisions are left to women, not the doctors or the state.
Parents are asking for consent in the basic goals, material, and methods used in the education of their children.
American torts have long required consent in torts. What Swalwell seemed to suggest would be battery for doctors to make the key decisions over surgical goals or purposes. Indeed, even when doctors secured consent to operate on one ear, it was still considered battery when they decided in the operation to address the other ear in the best interests of the patient. Mohr v. Williams, 104 N.W. 12 (Minn. 1905).
In Canterbury v. Spence, 464 F.2d 772, 784, the court observed:
“Nor can we ignore the fact that to bind the disclosure obligation to medical usage is to arrogate the decision on revelation to the physician alone. Respect for the patient’s right of self-determination on particular therapy demands a standard set by law for physicians rather than one which physicians may or may not impose upon themselves.”
Thus, doctors in the United States do have to secure the consent of patients in what they intend to do in surgeries or other medical procedures. (There are narrow exceptions such things as “substituted consent” or emergencies that do not apply here).
Ironically, California has one of the strongest patient-based consent rules. As the California Supreme Court stated in Cobbs v. Grant, 8 Cal. 3d 229 (1972):
“Unlimited discretion in the physician is irreconcilable with the basic right of the patient to make the ultimate informed decision regarding the course of treatment to which he knowledgeably consents to be subjected.
A medical doctor, being the expert, appreciates the risks inherent in the procedure he is prescribing, the risks of a decision not to undergo the treatment, and the probability of a successful outcome of the treatment. But once this information has been disclosed, that aspect of the doctor’s expert function has been performed. The weighing of these risks against the individual subjective fears and hopes of the patient is not an expert skill. Such evaluation and decision is a nonmedical judgment reserved to the patient alone.”
While obviously a patient cannot direct an operation itself, the doctor is expected to explain and secure the consent of the patient in what a surgery will attempt and how it will be accomplished. That is precisely what parents are demanding in looking at the subjects and books being taught in school. Moreover, that is precisely the role of school boards, which has historically exercised concurrent authority over the schools with the teachers hired under the school board-approved budgets.
Clients and Legal Consent
Swalwell is also wrong on suggesting that clients are not in charge of their own trials. Not only must attorneys secure the consent of their clients on what will be argued in trial but they can be removed by their clients for failure to adequately represent their interests. It would be malpractice for a lawyer to tell a client, as suggested by Swalwell, that they do not control the major decisions in their own cases.
Ironically, the informed consent rule in the law has been traced to its rise in the medical profession. It was adopted by bars to give clients the right to direct their own legal affairs. MODEL RULES OF PROF’L CONDUCT r. 1.7 cmt. 18; id. r. 1.0(e) (defining “informed consent” as the “agreement by a person to a proposed course of conduct after the lawyer has communicated adequate information and explanation about the material risks of and reasonably available alternatives to the proposed course of conduct”).
Obviously, lawyers must follow their own ethical and professional judgment in trials, and tactical choices are generally left up to the lawyers. However, the main arguments and objectives of the trial remain for the client to decide. As one court explained in Metrick v. Chatz, 639 N.E.2d 198, 653-54 (Ill. App. Ct. 1994):
“An attorney’s liability for failing to advise a client of the foreseeable risks attendant to a given course of legal action is not predicated upon the impropriety of the recommended course of action; rather, it is predicated upon the client’s exposure to a risk that the client did not knowingly and voluntarily assume. Consequently, to establish the element of proximate cause, it is necessary for the client to both plead and prove that had the undisclosed risk been known, he or she would not have accepted the risk and consented to the recommended course of action.”
Much like the claim of parents, clients demand the right to reject a plan for trial and the arguments or means to be used at trial. This right of consent is ongoing and can be exercised at any point in the litigation.
Informed Consent
Of course, the key to informed consent is that parents are given the information needed to secure their consent. School districts have been resisting such disclosures and pushing back on parental opposition to major curriculum or policy decisions.
I have previously stated my opposition to micromanaging classrooms. However, in public education, citizens vote to elect board members to be accountable for educational priorities and policies. In private education, citizens vote with their tuition dollars as well as through school boards. Most of these controversies involve major educational policies ranging from transgender participation on teams to the lesson plans viewed by many as extreme or political. Those policies go to the issues of educational priorities that have historically been subject to school board authority.
What is most striking about Swalwell’s reference to patients and clients is that, under his educational approach, parents have far more say in a wart removal or a parking ticket challenge than the education of their children. If anything, his analogies support the call for greater parental knowledge and consent.
In other words, “what is missing here” is that Rep. Swalwell’s interpretation could constitute both medical and legal malpractice. It may also constitute political malpractice as both parties now careen toward the 2024 elections.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Ronald Reagan
Moochelle launches her 2024 campaign tonight.
Barry’s off to the horsey races with his “friend.”
_____________________________________
“ABC News Prime Time Special”
“Michelle Obama: The Light We Carry, A Conversation with Robin Roberts”
… Georgie Porgie ran away.
Just more of Swalwell’s ideology from the Chinese province of California. Anyone see Fang Fang lately? 😉
63% of European men voted republican on November 8, 2022.
37% are acquiescent, dastardly, milquetoast, communist (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs, MINOs) “men” who hold no sense of family, nationality or patriotism.
The American Founders were European.
The Founders provided naturalization to “…free white person(s)…” and the vote to male, European, 21, net worth 50 lbs. Sterling/50 acres.
Now you know what happened to America.
__________________________________
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-elections/exit-polls
You’re not missing a thing, Swalwell is an ass.
“If it were to be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of security in a Republic? the answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.”
– Alexander Hamilton, August 28, 1794
“Please tell me what I’m missing here. What are we doing next? Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials? When did we stop trusting experts. … This is so stupid.”
– Eric Stupidwell
_____________
What you’re missing is the American thesis of Freedom and Self-Reliance.
What you’re “getting” is the enslavement of the Communist Manifesto, the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” and the establishment of American progeny as children of communist state.
You are a direct and mortal enemy of the American thesis, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, America and Americans.
Constitutional rights and freedoms are natural and God-given.
Your bizarre notional disputations are factitious and the spawn of Karl Marx, oh, and the devil.
__________________________________________________________________________
The people became the Sovereign, and government the Subject of that Sovereign, in 1789.
Public schools don’t tell American parents what will be taught; American parents tell public schools what will and will not be taught.
Article 1, Section 8, enumerates no power to regulate education; the Department of Education is unconstitutional and an adverse and inimical communist abomination.
Teachers unions are criminal organizations existing by thuggery and violence, and an unconstitutional usurpation of the power of elected offices.
The Constitution does not allow teachers unions to hold dominion or subvert the power of elected officials or voters.
The military is every nation’s primary workforce and no military will ever allow, or be subjugated by, a union.
The Deep Deep State just secured another corrupt election.
Critical outcomes were delayed until as much as Saturday to accommodate “adjustments” of votes, and the perpetuation and prevalence of the multicultural hyphenate, illegal alien, foreign invader, American welfare state.
Americans understand that, as the tyranny and oppression of the British monarchy could not be overcome by available means in 1776, the election corruption and dominion of the Deep Deep State “Swamp,” President Eisenhower’s Military/Industrial Complex, cannot be overcome now.
To wit,
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
In the olden days parents paid for educating their children. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” — A. Lincoln
This led to richer parents able to afford a better education for their children than the poor. This, in turn, was seen as unfair by certain politicians. The poor were disadvantaged. Public education funded by property owners became the norm.
This has failed to give a high quality education to the poor.
Possible solution: Have a competition for k-12 (and collegiate academic [not sports]) taxpayer funded full-ride, including room and board and all supplies, scholarships. Parents alone (consulting with the older child) get to choose their child’s school if they qualify for more than one. A level playing field so a poor genius has as much opportunity as a rich genius. And an equal opportunity to find out that academic competition is not their forte. If a sub-group (by gender, religion, disability, ancestry, etc.) has a low representation in a given type of scholarship, ignore it since they had a level playing field. Equality of opportunity, not results.
Possible option: Include arts and sports and trade specialty schools in taxpayer funded scholarship competition.
The absolute and definitive solution, as is always the case in every facet of human endeavor:
Competition innate in free enterprise conducted in the free markets of the private sector.
Unconstitutional governmental imperium doesn’t have to do anything.
Unconstitutional government imperium must simply get out of the way.
Old.George,
“The poor were disadvantaged. Public education funded by property owners became the norm.
This has failed to give a high quality education to the poor.”
Depends on where you are and how closely the adults in a given community pay attention to, demand, and have an idea of what constitutes an excellent education.
I grew up poor, but was lucky enough to be in districts that had knowledgeable and wise people paying attention.
Jonathan: And Elon Musk was in the news this week. Twitter lost more than 1.3 million users in the week after Musk bought it. A lot more are leaving and advertisers won’t touch Twitter. Musk told Twitter employees this week they may be facing bankruptcy. To make matters worse Musk is picking a fight with a powerful US Senator.
One enterprising Washington Post reporter was able to create a verified Twitter account impersonating Sen. Ed Markey. Markey immediately sent a letter to Musk demanding an explanation: “Selling the truth is dangerous and unacceptable. Twitter must explain how this happened and how it will be prevent it from happening again”. In a snarky reply Musk said: “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody”.
Oh, boy! Musk picked a fight with the wrong guy. The Senator sits on numerous subcommittees that have oversight not only over Twitter but two other Musk companies–Tesla and Space X. Now that the Dems have full control of the Senate the GOP can’t block any Markey inspired investigations. Markey replied to Musk’s snarky post: “Fix your companies or Congress will”. A warning shot across the bow of Musk’s floundering Twitter. Musk has a habit of shooting himself in the foot!
Dennis, I am certain your comment was censored by that Russian Bots Overlord, Sarren Dmith, but luckily for you I captured your censored comment, pasted below these lines.
Ed Markey
@SenMarkey
Nov 11
A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me—I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.
Letter addressed to Elon Musk from Senator Markey. Full text linked in the reply.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Replying to @SenMarkey and @washingtonpost
Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?
10:20 AM · Nov 13, 2022
Estovir,
It appears Sen Markey was fully aware and gave the WaPo reporter permission to use his name to create the fake account.
“Then I did my test again with the permission of a U.S. senator, Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).”
And then played the victim.
There is another issue here that is difficult to deal with: the “expert” class in education has been corrupted by money and ideology, sometimes both.
The “anti-racist” and gender transition agendas have taken over K-12 schools.
My daughter missed a day of school last Tuesday because the teachers had a “Professional Development” day. Did they spend it pursuing solutions to the lost learning resulting from Covid closures and hybrid schedules? Of course not. They had lectures and group sessions on the latest in “equity” promotion.
In fourth grade, the school instructs the students in preferred pronouns and explains “social transition.” This is now recognised in the UK and elsewhere in Europe as a form of medical intervention that should only be pursued following a diagnosis of consequential gender dysphoria after substantial psychological investigation and counselling. The reason is that it makes a natural growing out of the problem considerably less likely and is the first step toward puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgery, none of which has been proven to be an effective treatment.
Funding for DEI departments is more available than for basic educational needs; even when school budgets are constrained, DEI departments expand. None of the “anti-racist” training or pedagogy has been shown to improve the performance of any students; it is a waste of money, time and effort, and displaces the more difficult task of actually improving the teaching of students. But it makes the school committees, administrators and some teachers feel good about themselves. And it keeps the money flowing.
The promotion of gender transition has seeped into the schools as part of general “equity” promotion and as a result of “affirmative care” thinking, which has taken over the medical profession because it makes a lot of money for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors. A backlash against this is underway in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and in some US states such as Florida. Malpractice lawsuits are beginning to appear.
Teachers should stick to teaching basic skills and knowledge. Their “expertise” does not extend to social theory and medicine.
Lots of that nonsense is coming down from the Feds and the State Depts of Education. I’m not saying there aren’t some woke administrators and teachers also introducing this stuff, but it is being pushed by Learning 2025, and ESSER, etc.
I think you are right that there are some incentives from above, but there is also a great deal of “wokism” among school committees, school administrators and teachers unions. “Professional Development” should not be dominated by the “anti-racist” agenda. And “social transition” should not be promoted in schools. Both are dictated largely by local forces.
” there is also a great deal of “wokism” among school committees, school administrators and teachers unions.”
Depends on where you live. I will grant you that the leadership (again, depending upon your locale) is more likely prone to this (since they have nice, shiny EdDs). I’d still hazard that many are getting pressured by the Federal and State governments and othe professional organizations.
“Professional Development” should not be dominated by the “anti-racist” agenda”
I agree. I think school boards are supposed to approve professional development, though. If not the particular programs or conferences, then the funding.
Jonathan: Permit me to shift to more important news. According to this morning’s election update the Dems still control the Senate–50 to 48. If Warnock wins the run-off in Georgia the Dems will have a lock on the Senate. The count in the House is closer with the GOP having having a slight lead–211 to 204. A few races are to be decided in California–not a good for the GOP and certainly not the super-majority they expected. Biden and the Dems defied the odds makers.
The mid-terms, despite all the voter suppression efforts, were a disaster for the GOP and many in the party are pointing fingers but not at the right person. They should be blaming Donald Trump. In key states all of the Trump endorsed candidates lost and lost badly. They were candidates who would control state elections and Trump hoped they would help him in 2024. In Arizona Blake Masters, Trump’s pic and election denier, lost to Mark Kelly. Couldn’t be any worse for the Trumpster. And how did he react? Here’s what he said on Truth Social:
“So in Maricopa County they’re at it again. Voting Machines in large numbers didn’t work, but only in Republican districts. People were forced to wait for hours [strange complaint since Trump urged GOP voter to vote in person]…Even Kari Lake [who lost] was taken to a Liberal Democrat district in order to vote…This is a scam and voter fraud, no different than stuffing the ballot boxes. They stole the Electron [sic] from Blake Masters. Do the Election over again!” Classic Trump but apparently no one is listening now.
I doubt the Arizona GOP has any stomach for challenging the Masters or Lake results. They don’t want a repeat of 2020 when they lost all the recounts–even the one they conducted. Election deniers are probably in short supply now in Maricopa County. Now I know. Some of your loyal followers and Trump supporters will complain I am fixated on the Trumpster. But it gives me great pleasure in relishing Trump’s defeats and satisfied in the knowledge his followers are just gullible chumps!
Your analysis supports my contention that politics held sway to economics in this cycle. Winter is coming. We have yet to know how the Democrat northern tier will cope with that which revisits them in that season..
“The mid-terms, despite all the voter suppression efforts…”
Dennis the Menace spreading fibs.
DennisMcIntyre, largest turn out in Georgia history. So much for your voter suppression. Reality doesn’t matter to Denis McIntyre he’s just told what to say. They pull the strings to make his brains, arms and mouth work.
Thinkitthrough: On the contrary. I don’t require anyone to “pull the strings” to make my brains, arms and mouth work. Funny, you always resort to these personal attacks when you have nothing else to say. And I never said voter suppression always works. It doesn’t work so well when there is a huge voter turnout–as occurred in the mid-terms. Voter suppression works best when turn-out is low.
But the fact remains that voter suppression is a reality. Take Georgia. After the GOP lost the presidential election in 2020 Georgia Republicans Gov. Kemp admitted that there had to be changes to the voting laws to prevent a repeat of 2020. So SB202 was passed and Kemp signed it. That law did several things. It shortened the window during which voters can request and return an absentee ballot, drastically reduced the number of ballot drop boxes and making it harder to vote by provisional ballot. It even made it a crime to hand out a bottle of water or a snack to voters waiting in line. These voter suppression measures were duplicated in many other GOP controlled states.
In contrast, in California where I vote every eligible voter automatically receives a mail-in ballot. In my voting district there are 6 ballot drop off locations–all within a 5 to 15 minute drive. You won’t find such convenience in Georgia. And there has never been a claim of “massive voter fraud” by the GOP because of the state’s mail-in ballot law.
The voter turn out this year was larger than many expected–probably because women and younger voters turned out in record numbers due to their anger over the Dobbs decision overturning Roe. That made voter suppression efforts less effective. But this doesn’t mean they don’t exist or won’t be used again in 2024. Your problem is that someone is pulling the strings of your brain that makes it impossible for you to imagine that two things can simultaneously be true!
“Biden didn’t even campaign and got 12m more votes and much better turnout than Obama in 2008. He got 16m more votes than Hillary in ’16, even though Trump increased his vote total by 12m. The idea that this is due to anything but scamming mail-in/harvesting rules is absurd.” @martyrmade
The fix is in for Warnock. You know that, doncha Dennis? Of course it’ll be another Democrat “win”….
Democrat playbook goes like this:
“The same people who investigated Trump for 4 straight years for fake collusion with Russia on the basis of a made up dossier are completely unbothered with Biden’s collusion with Ukraine to launder money through FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried.”
It works like this:
“Money Laundering 101.
1. Foreign aid goes to Ukraine.
2. Ukraine invests in $FTX
3. $FTX donates back to the Democratic Party.
The ‘fix’ is in.
Do you know the moral of the story, Dennis?
Do not, under any circumstances, let them take your guns away.
You worry. Do you really think all the millions of guns bought in the last decade intend to be relinquished? Freely? That’s the whole point. While people’s true votes might not be counted…people have done the math. Including Biden…who mocks “your guns won’t be enough against my f16 and nukes…” ….nobody is giving up their guns. Nobody who went out of there way recently to get a gun….is giving up their gun. But they will try to pick us off like always one by one. Unless our governmental he’ll.
He is pandering so hard to teachers’ unions it makes me sick. But he hasn’t learned anything from the last few years or elections. He stands for unlimited abortion rights, yet you have no rights in your child’s education. Once you have children, the bureaucracy and state take over from there.
Speaking as a developer of a 21st-century Math Education approach called “Dataflow Geometry”, it’s my task to provide learning opportunity to parents and students. My power is limited to offering possibilities and persuasion.
If students and parents partake, yes, they are trusting my expertise as far as responsibility for the details. In the end, it’s the students and parents who’ll decide if my approach to math offers benefit.
I can see Swalwell’s position up to a point — in recent years we have seen militant parents storm into School Board meetings expecting to seize control of the process — coming from too emotional, tribalistic and disrespectful place to be of much positive impact.
That said, Swalwell could be discounting the wisdom of thoughtful and caring parents, and giving too much power to so-called “experts” to experiment with their children. I’d cite CRT-influenced DEI programs. 20 years ago, these programs would have had to show solid positive results in pilot testing to be adopted widely, and would have to define positive results in ways that can be objectively measured. Those standards seem to have been dropped for DEI. And, the results, at least anecdotal, are not encouraging when students report that too much race-consciousness makes social life harder, and encourages escalation over petty slights and misunderstandings.
Another example is the now discredited Common-Core Math, launched by the Governors Association and then driven by Pres. Obama and Arne Duncan. After billions of hours of energy expended on rolling out CCM, there were no significant gains in student achievement, and slight rollback. The “experts” who designed CCM were mostly all Education PhDs — none had experience in industries that depend highly on applied math. So, the wrong mix of “experts” is one of the pitfalls of relying on “expertise”. Swalwell needs to look at educational expertise as pluralistic, evolving, competitive and only credible when delivering satisfaction surveys of students and parents.
The nation just went through electing some 1600 school board seats. A preliminary analysis showed that “back to basics” candidates beat out social-engineering candidates about 3:2.
Education is complex and essential to excel at. We can ill afford rabid infowarriors who take up ad-hominem tactics. It can only be improved in an atmosphere of “cool”, open-minded and common-sense thinking.
Very thoughtful comment. Wish it was 3:0 in favor of “back to basics.”
This fits with the election perfectly. Married people (men and women) voted mostly Republican because of the Swalwell types and single women voted overwhelmingly Democrat because of abortion. People who want children in this country and women who don’t have a major dispute that needs to be resolve.
Don’t you think many of these single women will eventually marry and have children?….and their political outlook will change with those responsibilities and perspective? Isn’t the passage of time a natural way your “major dispute” can be resolved? Or, speeding up the maturation process of children, so they can become financially independent, marry and procreate not so long after voting age 18?
The new book “Of Boys and Men” by Richard V. Reeves addresses some of the key economic and demographic issues getting in the way to family formation. He offers actionable and realistic improvements.
pbinca, when I was much younger, my mother told me she broadly supported abortion until she had children, when her feelings changed. I didn’t delve into it with her because I really didn’t care about abortion. I’d still rather not think about it, but…
If we believe that making the Democrats a permanent-majority party is a price we’re willing to pay to stop nearly all abortions in some states, then I can respect that decision, even if I disagree with it, but if we believe abolishing nearly all abortions in some states will have few political consequences, that is not a realistic basis for a decision, IMHO.
I have no doubt many of these young women–like my mother–will evolve in their thinking, but I seriously doubt this issue will go away. There will always be more young, single women in the pipe, and while I like the idea of young people maturing and succeeding at younger ages, that’s a project that will take decades to fully adopt.
We’re losing control of the country to despots right now. Is that really the price we’re willing to pay?
Abortion should not be in the federal domain. However, both of you add a new situation. Acceptance of abortion is fluid. That is an additional reason for abortion not to be a federal issue.
That dispute is manufactured because this is a false dichotomy. The right to abortion does not affect those who do want kids. That’s why its called “pro-choice”: the option to keep or to abort should both be legitimate options. Parents should also be informed and have the ability to direct their children’s (but not necessarily other children’s) education as they see fit. If Republicans could be consistent with their libertarian principles, this would’ve been a very different mid term — that’s the real dispute that needs resolving.
Marsala writes, “The right to abortion does not affect those who do want kids.”
First of all, I appreciate the sincerity and consistency of your opinion; however, voting Democrat to keep abortion in all states in this era does affect parents. I do agree that many libertarians would support you on the narrow question of abortion. This just shows the moral complexity of the issue.
I’m not a libertarian myself. In my world, no right or privilege can be absolute, so if we start from my standpoint of accepting some limitations, is there a limit that you think most single women could accept for abortion? 15 weeks? What Senator Graham proposed?
Marsala also writes, “Parents should also be informed and have the ability to direct their children’s (but not necessarily other children’s) education as they see fit.”
Totally agree. I don’t want anyone to hijack other people’s kids.
““Parents should also be informed and have the ability to direct their children’s (but not necessarily other children’s) education as they see fit.””
That is why we elect representatives who are supposed to discuss and vote on what will work best, overall for a given community’s kids’ education.
I’ll grant that school boards have the responsibilities of establishing curriculum and school budgets. They hire the superintendent who has direct oversight of the administration of individual schools. One can argue that informed consent in public schools stems from the voters.
However, school boards are political. Meetings are supposed to public and board members are supposed to listen to community members, even those that only pay taxes objectively. Yet, numerous examples of racial bias on the part of board members, see LA Unified School Board. Boards across the country have adopted CRT as part of educating students. In NYC public education is in chaos. Merit based testing is under attack from many educators in the system. School management on all levels ignore parents concerns and petitions.
Parents have the right and duty to address certain controversial topics and at what grade level. Parents are supposed to question text books are used and what library books are available to their children and at what grade. Parents should be able to object to gender affirmation programs and for minors to opt out. Parents should object to the notion and practice of mixed locker rooms and males participating in girls sports (my opinion).
Too often teachers, administrators, and school boards take the position that acting in loco parentis provides the opportunity to incorporate ‘popular’ topics’ into lesson plans that are agenda driven. We have seen boards of education refuse to allow parents to speak at meetings. In a few cases parents have been removed from meetings and in a few cases handcuffed. Teachers unions have ‘conspired’ with the White House and Department of Justice to monitor speech of parents and DOJ considered parents as domestic terrorists.
Parents and voters can not give informed consent without the public education system being transparent.
“Parents should object to the notion and practice of mixed locker rooms and males participating in girls sports (my opinion).”
They do object and are told that if the district violates Title IX by denying transgender kids from using the bathroom of their choice they’ll lose their funding. Title IX has moved well beyond equal access for girls for athletics.
I guess he never hear about the principal agent dilemma.
Remind me not to hire Swalwell as my lawyer. He thinks he should be able to settle my case without my approval.
He’s talking about the same people who choose their political leadership. Hmmm. Have to ponder that a bit more.
This from an arrogant, hubris ridden, cesspool of moral and ethical turpitude who should have been driven out of public life for the corrupt wretch and CCP hack he is. This is the sort of tripe we can continue to expect coming forth from California going forward.
One has to wonder, Professor, if you are so deep into Trump that you can no long make distinctions. Would you really want to be doing your own surgery and be asked when and where to cut? Surely you are not as clueless as you appear to be it’s just that you can’t stop going after anyone who doesn’t agree with Trump 100% of the time.
So Justice Holmes you are ready to give up your right to say whether you should be operated on or not? Holmes says okay Doc if you say so. Can I get a second opinion first. Hell no you have no right to question my commandment the Doc responds. Now just shut up and let me place this CRT mask over your gender fluid mouth. Justice Holmes replies, okay Doc if it’s good enough for the kids it must be good enough for me. Justice Holmes is always on the ready to give his rights away if in doing so it brings an end to Trump. When his every argument on any subject turns to Trump there is no question that the diagnoses is a derangement syndrome.
TiT,
That was actually funny.
Thanks Upstate.
You are wrong. The doctor has the knowledge but the patient makes the ultimate decision. You need to go to China and take a nap on a bench. When you awaken to find one of your kidney’s missing, tell us how the doctor, as the expert, has the authority.
Interestingly, it appears Rep. Swalwell is speaking more of the future vision for American Healthcare by government for big corporations. We all went through the Covid “pandemic” and the message from our government(s) was clear… we cannot challenge either government or their chosen proxied “experts” “knowledge” when it comes to management of the citizenry… This appears to be exactly what is reflected in the Representative’s view of the situation. Let the “experts” do their jobs and shut up…