There is no longer a debate over whether the school systems in Maryland support ideology over parents and families. 

When MCPS decided to offer a transgender reading program to elementary school children this year, the program came with an opt-out option for parents. When an overwhelming majority of parents opted out, MCPS eliminated the opt-out option. Parents are suing.

The MCPS position makes it clear they will teach the topic to elementary-age children no matter how many parents do not want their children to participate and that the opt-out offer was only sincere if no one used it. If you doubt how little MCPS cares what parents want, remember this: in an obvious bit of trickery to circumvent state standards for Health class opt-out provisions, MCPS moved the program from the Health curriculum to an English program, which has no opt-out provisions.

When parents pointed out the obvious attempt to circumvent the opt-out and conduct the full program with no parental consent or notice, MCPS stated, “Public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive” but made no mention of why teaching tolerance and acceptance wasn’t possible without the heavy emphasis on transgender. I wonder if MCPS can see that forcing someone’s children to be exposed to something even MCPS says is offensive is a great example of intolerance.

If you want to know where FCPS is headed, just watch MCPS.