JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has announced the launch of the Students First Initiative, an effort by the Attorney General’s Office to increase transparency in Missouri’s schools. The goal of the initiative is to ensure a quality education for Missouri’s children by uncovering and eliminating curriculum and policies and practices that prioritize politics in the classroom instead of student education and success.
Attorney General Schmitt also recently pushed for a bill that would establish a Parents’ Bill of Rights, aimed at empowering parents and increasing transparency around curriculum and practices in Missouri’s schools.
“Parents have every right to know exactly what is being taught to their kids when they go to school every day. For too long, our schools have stonewalled parents and resisted transparency when it comes to curriculum, policies, and practices. As Attorney General, I’m determined to end that stonewalling, empower parents, and return transparency to Missouri’s schools,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “With the Students First Initiative, my Office will work directly with parents to bring to light curriculum and practices that prioritize injecting politics into the classroom. Together with parents across the state, we can put an end to these woke policies and lesson plans and ensure that our children are receiving the best possible education.”
The Students First Initiative aims to give a voice to parents across the state to learn more about curriculum, policies and practices, disciplinary issues, IEP recording policies, and more in Missouri’s schools.
Similar to the Attorney General’s push to engage parents across the state on mask mandates, the Attorney General’s Office urges parents to submit information about objectionable curriculum like Critical Race Theory, teacher training materials, school initiatives and speakers, administrative overreach, and other issues and practices that don’t prioritize student education in their children’s schools.
Submissions by parents can be made here: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/students-first-initiative
Attorney General Schmitt has been a leader, both in Missouri and nationally, in pushing for transparency in education. In addition to pushing for a Parents’ Bill of Rights, the Attorney General’s Office has sued the Springfield School District for records pertaining to Critical Race Theory and recently sued the Missouri School Boards’ Association and the Rockwood School District for violations of the Sunshine Law.
Further, the Attorney General’s Office sued the Biden Administration for failing to produce records related to the production of the Department of Justice’s memo that designated concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.”