By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

The government at both the federal and state levels have declared war, not over a foreign adversary but over parents who dare challenge the status quo over the quality of education for their children and are demanding more school choice.

Just recently the state of North Carolina officially placed their state in a “state of emergency” akin to declaring a Cat 5 hurricane by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper not in preparation for an incoming storm, but a political storm over greater school choice.

Parents all across the state by a wide margin are demanding greater choice in education, despite the strong opposition from the governor.

The state legislator which is strongly dominated by Republicans is preparing to override the governor’s veto by allowing greater school choice under the states voucher system despite strong opposition from Cooper.

Cooper declared “It’s time to declare a State of Emergency for public education in North Carolina. There’s no Executive Order like with a hurricane or the pandemic, but it’s no less important.”

This war isn’t confined to just the states; the Department of Justice under Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden administration have declared open warfare on parents.

In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed the FBI to be observant of parents who have been protesting at local school board meeting over the quality of instruction and over school safety among other issues.

In the fall of 2021, Garland sent a memo to the FBI directing the bureau to begin coordinating with school districts across the country in protecting them from threats from parents this after the Biden administration received a request from the National School Boards Association (NSBA).

President Biden and his administration have taken cues from national teachers union in opposing any form of school choice; this also has been the position of the Democratic Party for decades.

Can you blame parents for being vocal about the quality of education, considering in the fall of last year the U.S. Department of Education released the first post pandemic report of U.S. educational achievement in math and reading and the numbers were not pretty.

In October the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that U.S. students regressed to a 30 year low in math and reading, with minority students faring the worst with close to 80% not proficient in math and reading. The same report basically stated that 1-3 American school children aren’t proficient in reading, this despite the country spending around $800 billion annually on k-12 education.

This doesn’t factor in the over $200 billion the nation’s schools received in Covid funding during the coronavirus pandemic.

Just examine the quality of public school education across the country, the city of Baltimore for example, despite having one of the highest per public school spending in the country had 23 schools with zero students who tested proficient in math. These schools include 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three Middle/High schools and two Elementary/Middle schools. Baltimore also had 2,000 students who took the state test could not do math at grade level.

Look at Chicago, where Wirepoints stated that dozens of Chicago area schools claim not one student proficient in math or reading, imagine not one student despite spending close to $30,000 per pupil.

Wirepoint also reported that by examining the 2022 data from the Illinois Department of Education, highlighted the fact that in 55 Chicago public schools, students could not do math or reading at their grade level.

This failure of U.S. public education is a cancer that has spread all across the country with the Los Angeles Unified School District reporting in which 80% of all black and Hispanic children are deficient at grade level in math and reading, this despite billions in funding.

Just examine California where the educational achievement is a disaster, considering they spending billions but have one of the lowest education achievement gaps in country. The current Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom champions public education and chastise anyone who supports school choice, but he sends his children to a private school. Even when six million California children spent two years learning by zoom at home, his children were attending a private school with in-person learning.

Joel Kotkin writing in National Review mentioned that almost three of out of every five California high-schoolers are not prepared for either college or a career; in most school subjects, the state scores below the national average.

Federal and State governments aligned with school boards, teacher unions and a Democratic Party have resisted and often attacked parents over school curriculum and social issues all because parents want better outcome for their children. The Democratic Party through the government apparatus has treated parents as unwanted partners and in many cases as criminals.

Just examine a comment of Iowa school board member Rachel Wall, who said: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.”

Then there is State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) tweeted: “If parents want to ‘have a say’ in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.”

All across the country public schools are producing despicable educational scores but this is most acute in the minority community as black and Hispanic students continue to underperform at grade level in basic core subjects.

As public scores drop precipitously, public schools and their allies in the powerful teacher unions and in the Democratic Party continue to push equity that lowers educational standards. Oregon passed a bill that removes testing in core subjects like math and English to graduate high school.

San Francisco has declared meritocracy a form of “white supremacy” despite over 80% of black and Hispanic students unable to test proficient at grade level in math and English. How are these students going to succeed in life if they are only doing middle school level reading and math?

The Democratic Party which often control state and federal educational systems push for the abandonment of Gifted and talented programs all under the guise of “equity,” but it’s interesting to note that these same political leaders such as the Democratic Governor of North Carolina champion public education but send their own children to private school.

Almost all Democrats champion public education but send their own children to private schools, the Clinton’s, Obama, and President Biden have all sent their own children to private schools instead of public schools. All most all Democratic leaders send their children to private schools, but I guess the analogy is one standard for my children a different standard for yours.

Maybe once parents have a choice the teachers unions and the Democratic Party lose a virtual monopoly and with it billions of dollars in funding, and the loss of the all-important union dues that flow exclusively to Democrats.

One only has to remember the wise counsel President Eisenhower gave in his farwell address to the nation in January 1961 when he stated, “The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.”

The federal and state governments allocates hundreds of billions of dollars in educational funding utilizing the expertise of our nation’s scholars are they doing it for the betterment of the nation’s children’s or themselves and their allies?

Is this why the government is targeting parents because they feel parents are a threat to their bottom line?