Week in Review: Are school officials trashing my daughter?

When Pennsylvania mom Tara Adams overheard school officials disparaging the conservative club her daughter had formed at her high school, she filed public records requests to see if those officials—government workers—were also trashing her daughter in their emails.

District officials refused to provide the records and went to great lengths to keep Tara from getting them. But they couldn’t keep her in the dark for long: this week, a state court judge ruled the emails in question were public records that Tara had a right to see.

It’s just the latest parental rights victory for Goldwater’s American Freedom Network of pro bono attorneys. But it certainly won’t be the last.

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Another Like Reagan, Please 

Hollywood heartthrob. Wildly popular two-term president. Conservative icon.

Perhaps no American president of the past half-century has been as universally beloved as Ronald Reagan—the man who defeated Soviet communism and ushered in a new era of American peace and prosperity. Last week, the Goldwater Institute was honored to host a special premiere showing  of the new biographical drama film Reagan in downtown Phoenix. Our friends and supporters watched the actor Dennis Quaid bring the 40^th president to life—all while munching on jellybeans, which were President Reagan’s favorite treat.

As Reagan historian Paul Kengor put it: “Liberals and conservatives alike are longing for a president like Ronald Reagan again.”

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 You Won’t Believe What This Teachers Union Is Doing

You don’t have the right to know what your children are learning in school.

Teachers can refuse to give you information about your child’s behavior and performance in class.

It’s nearly impossible to terminate a teacher for ineffectiveness in the classroom.

It’s all part of a proposed collective bargaining agreement between the Rochester, Michigan, school board and the teachers union for the district. The assault on parents’ rights demonstrates the urgent need for all states to adopt Goldwater’s landmark Academic Transparency reform. This commonsense policy, already law in several states, requires school districts to post their learning materials online.

“Ensuring access to this information shouldn’t be controversial,” Goldwater’s Timothy K. Minella writes.

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