By Paul Bean
Parents, activists, and political leaders protested ‘toxic indoctrination’ in Vermont schools at a rally at the Vermont State House, Wednesday.
See YouTube video of rally here.
“Vermont schools and superintendents are waging war on parents and school children using our tax dollars and our state institutions,” said John Klar, a local author, lawyer, and farmer. “I’m going to make the case for fighting back for our school children from a toxic indoctrination facility…”
The meeting took place against the backdrop of recent legislative proposals and Governor Phil Scott’s transformative education funding plan, which includes consolidating Vermont’s 119 school districts into five and setting a base per-pupil funding amount.
Klar continued, “Americans have the right and the duty to raise their own children and that includes their education, their moral values, and their physical health…All three are under bold attack by Vermont’s paid government employees…this is your right, and it’s important to stand up for children because they can’t. And I can tell you some of these children rescued from this public school system are thriving, as if they’ve been taken out of an indoctrination camp, because they have!”
Yesterday’s event aimed to spotlight the role of parental voices in shaping Vermont’s public education system amid ongoing debates over funding, curriculum, and governance. Vermonters for Vermont, the main organizers of the event, was founded by Gregory Thayer, a Rutland-based conservative and former candidate for Lt. Governor.
“It’s funny because when I’ve done events in the past when the media asked me how many people I have in my organization, it’s pretty frank, I have 640,000 people because I am trying to reach every Vermonter with our message,” said Gregory Thayer. “Vermonters for Vermont is an educational platform, started in December of 2018, and back in 2021 I decided to get a little more involved and get deep with the school issue, seeing what was going on with critical race theory, I started doing town halls across the state…”
One major concern for students and parents is access to “school choice,” a policy in Vermont that allows parents and students (in specific areas) to choose their schools based on proximity, academic, and athletic needs.
“My wife and I live in Lowell, that’s right on the Lamoille County border. We wanted to send our kids to North Country. I work 40 minutes north. My wife worked at Johnson State College, we had an opportunity for our son to go to Lamoille which was only 5 minutes away from my wife,” said Representative Mark Higley. “Huge implications there for our son to achieve what he was going to achieve. As a Representative, I am certainly reached out to by a number of constituents saying hey you know Mark… we really want our son to go to North Country for their ice hockey program… it was always there was a little wiggle room for this and this new proposal should open this up.”
Representative Higley also mentioned some bills he sponsored or introduced that are aimed at giving parents more benefits, choice, and rights over their children’s education. Those bills included:
- H.282: Driver education for students participating in the home study program
- H.249: Income tax deduction for home study programs
- H.54: Cell phone-free schools
“We believe parents should be involved in all decisions about their children,” said Marie Tiemann, an organizer of the event representing speak-VT, an organization dedicated to excellence, transparency, and merit-based education in Vermont. Their website says, “Our concerns are many. Chief among them are failings in academic proficiencies, while our children endure attacks on their history, race, even their sexuality starting in kindergarten — all while excluding parents from a say in our children’s education.”
“Parents have the right to be included in choices of curriculum and their children’s education,” continued Tiemann. “This event aligns with speak-VT’s mission, which is to usher our children into an education experience that’s directed by parents as quickly as possible. We do that by investigating, informing, and advocating for students, parents, and educators to achieve academics of merit that are free of political and sexual persuasion.”
Speakers at the event highlighted concerns over what they perceive as a disconnect between state-level policies and the needs of individual communities. Others expressed frustration with rising property taxes and called for greater transparency in how education funds are allocated and spent.
The gathering featured discussions about local engagement, such as engaging with local school boards and participating in upcoming legislative hearings on the Governor’s plan, as well as the bills mentioned by Rep. Higley.
Toward the end of the meeting, John Klar talked about his affiliation with Alliance Defending Freedom and their role in protecting children across the country.
“You have a right to decide whether your child gets a vaccine, an HPV vaccine, hormones, blockers, I don’t care what the Vermont statutes say, that protect medical care providers who give medicines to children,” said John Klar, wrapping the meeting up. “This is criminal in my view and I ask you to tell people…I will connect them with a lawyer so we can evaluate their cases so they can stand up with a lawyer behind them to speak truth to power, and that’s why you’re all here.”
Following the event, organizers, parents, and attendees joined together in the cafeteria to converse, ask questions, and continue their planning to best serve Vermont’s students and schools around the state.