Friends,
Today at a mid-morning press conference, Connecticut’s Republican candidate for Governor Bob Stefanowski and his running mate Laura Devlin unveiled their “Parental Bill of Rights” as a part of their ongoing platform rollout.
As we all have witnessed, there are some in our midst who seek to undermine and discredit the very special and undeniable bonds that we share with our children. We are their guardians and protectors. We bear ultimate responsibility for their well-being and upbringing, so that they may grow up to be helpful and contributing members of a functional American society.
We will stop at nothing to preserve their safety, their fair treatment, and their opportunities.
It’s reassuring to know that Bob Stefanowski and Laura Devlin agree with us and will fight for our collective parental rights.
Please help us spread the word, and please help us in our efforts to aid Bob and Laura so they can become the next Republican Governor and Lt. Governor of Connecticut!
With Thanks,
Darien Republicans
Stefanowski & Devlin Announce Parental Bill of Rights
Hartford, CT - To coincide with the beginning of the school year, businessman and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski and his Lt. Governor running mate, current State Representative Laura Devlin, today announced a “Parental Bill of Rights” for Connecticut parents and schoolchildren aimed at empowering parents to make decisions for their children, bolstering quality education, investing more state resources in healthier and safer schools, and ensuring protections for competitive fairness and safety for girls in high school sports.
“During the last several years, the pendulum has swung too far against the rights of parents and their ability to make critical decisions for their children in terms of education, healthcare, and the teaching of moral values they hold dear,” said Stefanowski. “As Governor, I am going to reverse that trend and restore parental rights in a significant and meaningful way.”
“Every day I talk to parents who have important questions about their child’s education,” said Devlin. “There needs to be a strong and constant relationship among government, school systems, and the families they serve. Today we are presenting a road map to better balancing that relationship to provide quality education in a healthy and safe environment in partnership with Connecticut families.”
The Stefanowski-Devlin Parental Bill of Rights
-Empowering Parents-
Let families, not school districts, decide when and how to discuss sensitive sex education issues with young children.
“We should absolutely promote diversity and acceptance in our schools, but at the same time we should not be teaching age-inappropriate sex-ed curriculum to children not old enough to reliably tie their own shoes.”
Restore parental choice over healthcare decisions for children.
“Through the COVID pandemic, we learned that there are times when government mandates may be necessary, but also that government decision-making based on politics vs. science makes for bad public policy and distrust. We support science-based decision making and we both believe in the efficacy and safety of vaccines, but we don’t believe that parents should be forced by the government to vaccinate or mask their children without any recourse to object.”
Raise the age for parental consent for social media access and require operators of social media platforms to delete a child's account at the request of parents.
“Social media companies are allowed a 24/7 opportunity to impact our children, many of whom are addicted to social media and its many negative influences. Parents deserve every recourse available when trying to protect their children. We will raise the age requiring parental consent in Connecticut from 13 to 16 and give parents more power to control what their children consume online.”
-Quality Education-
Allow school choice and expand access to charter, magnet, and technical schools. Parents and their children should not be locked in failing schools just because of where they live.
“Parents should have options to choose the best education for their children, and no child should have their educational opportunity limited by their zip code. We support funding for public education and believe every child should have the opportunity for a top-rate education in our state. To remedy that, we will join the vast majority of other states in America who aim to provide parents and their children trapped in underperforming public school systems with vouchers and education savings accounts for better educational choices.”
Increase funding for tutoring programs to help combat persistent learning loss in the wake of the pandemic.
“The Governor and Lt. Governor’s refusal to aggressively address and reverse learning loss in our schools is unacceptable. CT Department of Education data from last year shows that student achievement is still lagging pre-pandemic levels. Despite over 500,000 K-12 students statewide and a $5 billion surplus, the state only made a small fraction available for summer school this year to help kids catch up before this school year began. We will initiate a coordinated statewide effort to identify students who have fallen behind during the pandemic and provide the resources to help them catch up to their peers and get back on track. Options for before school, after school, and during vacation need to be available to families.”
-Safe and Healthy Schools-
Dedicate a portion of the state’s $5 billion surplus to better fortify CT schools, protect our children and train staff.
“No price tag is too high when it comes to protecting our children from harm. That job is school-wide and begins as a student gets on the bus or starts their walk to school. Our proposal would provide grant funding for every public school system to better fortify their building security and enable the hiring of public safety professionals to provide the protections needed for every school in the state.”
Ensure the timely improvement statewide school air quality.
Closely monitor the “School Indoor Air Quality Working Group” report (due Jan 2023) and ensure the transparency and urgency of actions taken the State Departments of Administration and Education on school ventilation systems. According to a recent report, only 40 percent of school facilities had central air conditioning for their entire building and only 53 percent had HVAC or high-efficiency boilers no older than their expected useful life.
“The dangerous and unhealthy air quality in a majority of our schools is an outrage. Our children and staff’s health hang in the balance and we will demand information starting on day one to mitigate this statewide issue.”
Ensure the physical safety of all students by prohibiting biological males from competing against girls in high school athletics.
“Allowing transgender biological males to compete against biological females is inherently unfair to female student-athletes and, moreover, is physically unsafe. We will first try to work with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference to amend their current policy but absent their cooperation, we will work with the state legislature. There are Title 9 protections provided to girls and women, and we are committed to ensuring these protections.”
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