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Plano Parental Rights Council
P.O. Box 250416
Plano, TX 75025
972-491-0203
fax 972-491-5883
email ssa857@airmail.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

- Texas
TASB and Plano ISD want parents out of schools!
— Battle over control continues

Plano, Texas March 13, 2000

Parents across Texas will be appalled at the views expressed in the briefs filed by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and the Plano Independent School District (ISD) which asks a judge to dismiss the requests from parents of over 600 students who signed a petition for an alternative to the highly controversial and academically questionable Connected Math Program (CMP).

Plano ISD, in their Motion for Summary Judgment, claims that parents should leave the role of education to the educators and parenting to the parents, implying that schools should be a dictatorship of education and that parents should blindly follow the suggestions and opinions of the educators. This is in direct conflict with the Texas Education Code's number one objective for public education: "Parents will be full partners with educators in the education of their children (Sec. 4.001(b))." Their brief states:

• "Schools are not traditional forums in which outside visitors such as Plaintiffs may freely espouse their views." (p. 15)
  
• "Government nonetheless retains the right to set the curriculum in its own schools and insist that those who cannot accept the result exercise their right… and select private education at their own expense." (p. 21) [In other words, if you don't like it, leave.]
  
• "School administrators must be given broad discretion in supervising the visitation of the school environment by persons not associated with the school… (we are to invest…educators with greater control over expressive activities that bear on the school's imprimatur than other forms of speech or use of government facilities)." (p.16)
  
• "If Plaintiffs do not like the text and teaching methodology of CMP, they do have rights. They can select private education (as Plaintiff Johnson has done), select a different public school district, select home schooling, or vote in a new PISD school board." (p. 22)
  
• "Plantiffs have filed this lawsuit in an attempt to have this Court require the PISD to teach middle school pre-algebra the 'traditional' way…Such matters, of course, should be left to the sound discretion of the school board." (p. 1)
  
• "A minority of parents within the PISD, however, have resisted the implementation of CMP and are attempting to usurp the PISD School Board's discretion to set the middle school math curriculum through this lawsuit." (p. 4)
  
• TASB filed a friend of court brief because they were "concerned about the educational chaos that would result from permitting small groups of parents to dictate to school districts the methodology by which schools teach." Their brief argues similar points:
  
• "presumably if the Plaintiffs are so opposed to being taught by the Connected Math Program, they could move to another school district. They could also send their children to any private school they choose, or educate them at home." (p. 3-4)
  
• "If a student's right to education is not a fundamental right, it would make little sense to find that the parent's right to direct the education is fundamental." (p. 6)

What happens to parents in Plano (or other parts of Texas for that matter) who can't afford to send their children to private schools, don't have the time to home school or don't want to move to another district? What options do these parents have? The Texas Education Code states that parents are "partners" in education. Section 26.003 states: Rights Concerning Academic Programs "A parent is entitled to request, with the expectation that the request will not be unreasonably denied, the addition of a specific academic class in the course of study of the parent's child in keeping with the required curriculum if sufficient interest is shown in the addition of the class to make it economically practical to offer the class." The public education monopoly must learn to see parents as valuable customers, that they are "associated with the school," and that they have a right "to actively participate in creating and implementing educational programs for their children" TEC 26.001(a) instead of having the "if you don't like it, leave" attitude that resounds more than once in each brief.

The Plano Parental Rights Council is a non-profit 501( c)3 corporation dedicated to educational excellence in Plano. Although the Plano Parental Rights Council has no involvement in this case, the case has important implications for parental rights in education and is being closely watched. Please contact Susan Sarhady, Plano Parental Rights Council President at 972- 491-0203 for more information.

The Texas Justice Foundation, a non-profit litigation group, has been representing the six parents in the Plano case. To contact TJF, call (210) 614- 7157.

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Webmaster's note:  The following is a press release from a Parent's Rights group in Texas.  For background on this case, and on its underlying issue, the Connected Math Program, see our article: School District lawyers play hard-ball with Texas parents

"Plano Independent School District filed an appeal to their motion for qualified immunity which was denied in district court so that delayed the trial that was originally scheduled for Nov. 6, 2000.  Oral arguments in the appeal are tentatively scheduled for the week of March 5, 2001 -- this is in the 5th Circuit court in New Orleans.  The Judge here ruled prior to that time that depositions had to proceed.  We've gotten copies of most of them and posted them on our website.  For updates on the lawsuit, you can check out our website. The depositions are there as well." (Update received Jan 31, 2001 from the Plano Parental Rights Council)

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