Republicans Tell Parents to Remove Their Children from Public Schools

Colorado Republicans have called on parents to “remove their children” from public education over laws aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ students.

Policies regarding LGBTQ+ students in public schools have become a key culture war issue over the past few years. Advocates for LGBTQ+ students are calling for more inclusive policies requiring teachers to use transgender students’ pronouns that match their gender identity, as well as more inclusive curricula. Social conservatives, however, argue that for many students, LGBTQ+ identity is not an age-appropriate topic and that parents, not schools, should be responsible for leading these conversations.

In Colorado, long seen as a swing state that quickly swung toward Democrats in recent elections, Republicans are expressing frustration with the new public school law. Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill in April that requires every school board and pilot schools to adopt a policy prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of gender expression that includes the use of a student’s chosen name.”

The law requires school districts to implement a policy stating that knowingly or intentionally using a name other than a student’s chosen name is discrimination.

The bill has drawn sharp criticism from the Colorado Republican Party, which sent an email this week saying parents should take their children out of public schools due to concerns about “indoctrination.” The email was first reported by Denver-based television station KUSA.

“Colorado Kids should be able to attend public schools, receive a quality education and be free from indoctrination, but this is far from reality. In fact, all parents in Colorado should strive to remove their children from public education,” the email reads.

Written by Darcy Schoening, director of special initiatives for the Colorado Republican Party, the email encouraged Colorado school districts to adopt a separate resolution that would allow parents and teachers to opt out of the policy, raising concerns that it constituted “forced speech.” .

They claim the resolution’s purpose is to try to “save Colorado’s children from progressive Democrats who want to make more children transgender by requiring teachers to use ‘pronouns’ that make no sense and create gender confusion.”

“Will you stand up for Colorado families and tell Polis and his far-left legislators, ‘I will not be forced to use statements that contradict my religion?’ I will no longer participate in the fetishes of far-left legislators in the name of equality». This has gone too far,” the email said.

Newsweek contacted the Colorado Republican Party for comment via its online contact form.

KUSA reported that the Colorado Republican Party “veered hard to the right” in the last election. However, Republicans struggled to achieve statewide victories.

In 2020, President Joe Biden won the state by more than 13 points. In 2022, Polis won re-election by almost 20 points, and Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet won re-election by more than 14 points.