On June 13 and 14, former child star and Hollywood actor, Kirk Cameron, will debut his documentary film, "The Homeschool Awakening," (view the promo on YouTube here) in theaters across the country. A devout evangelical Christian, Cameron is calling for Americans to switch to homeschooling because of "the immoral things that the public-school system has been teaching our children."

Blaze Media reported on Cameron's movie in late April, following the actor/producer's official announcement of the release date. Cameron said he has been working on the project "for the last two and a half years" and that the effort "was not a sacrifice but a total gift. No one will love your children more than you do."

In a promo trailer for the film, Cameron revealed that, in his opinion, "the public-school system has become public enemy number one." He added: "The public-school system, unfortunately, has not been working with us, but actively working against us. We need to take back the education of our children, because whoever controls the textbooks controls the future. Whoever is shaping the hearts and minds and souls of our children will determine whether or not we live in a free country and have freedom of speech, economic freedom, educational and political freedom, and religious freedom."

The actor explained that his documentary will counter stereotypes about homeschooling; that it is a "cult" and that homeschooled children "are weird."

Homeschooling has risen to more than 11 percent of school-age households in the U.S. within the past 18 months. ABC News reported in April that the number of homeschooling students increased by 63 percent in the 2020-2021 school year in the 18 states reporting, then fell by only 17 percent in the 2021-2022 school year."

Cameron's film should only serve to increase these numbers.

Ohio parents elect conservative school board

In Ohio, the Forest Hills School District has a new school board, elected last November, that is moving to rid the schools of what many parents consider "political indoctrination." For example, the board voted on May 1 to ban Turpin High School's "Diversity Day" in 2022, even though the district has held the event each May for five years.

According to The Western Journal, the board's vote was in response to parental pushback. During the May 1 meeting, "School Board President Linda Hausfeld read from parent emails that indicated opposition to the event," including some parents who objected to their children being taught critical race theory, elements of which Diversity Day includes.

"Voters made it very clear in the November election that we do not want to fund social justice and political programming that is inherently divisive," Hausfeld read from one email. A letter from a black parent conveyed respect that "maybe [the promoters'] hearts are in the right place, but that the implementation is completely off-base, biased, and offensive."

The Cincinnati Inquirer reported that one of Diversity Day's planned activities entitled "Step to the Line," included asking students such questions as:

• Have you ever been embarrassed or ashamed of your clothes, your house, or your family when growing up?


• Was your grade school made up of people you felt were like yourself?


• When you go to the doctor, is the doctor the same race as you?


• Have you ever felt uncomfortable or angry about a remark or joke because of your race, ethnicity, age, or class?

Board member Sara Jonas told the Inquirer that she didn't understand "how this is the business of students, staff, or leaders in this exercise. How is this not political and indoctrination to the students?"

According to Fox News, Jonas also explained that critical race theory was "sprinkled all into the program. What the teachers are taught in professional development is then practiced on our students." At least for this year, however, Diversity Day will not take place. The people have spoken and the new board is likely to be on the lookout for more instances of leftist indoctrination and woke ideology.

Parents file suit in Baltimore

At the end of January 2022, fed-up parents Jovani and Shawnda Patterson filed a lawsuit against the city of Baltimore and the Baltimore Public Schools for failing to teach their children, and the consequent waste of their tax dollars. The couple said they took such action in desperation to have their voices heard. "There's really no other recourse a citizen in Baltimore could take," the Pattersons told The Daily Signal on March 22.

Since the school board is not elected, but appointed, and there was a slim chance that one or both of them could be appointed, they felt there was nothing they could do aside from a lawsuit "to effect change or request access into the inner workings of what's going on in Baltimore."

One glaring failure of the city's schools was reported in February by Fox News Baltimore, that "77 percent of students tested at Baltimore High School read at an elementary school level, and some at kindergarten level." A documentary labeling the district "a failure factory," reported that of 628 Patterson High School students who took the test, 484 tested at elementary school level, including 71 who were reading at kindergarten level and 88 who were reading at first-grade level. Only 12 students were able to read at a high school level, or just 1.9 percent.

Shortly after the Pattersons filed their lawsuit, charging that city residents receive "no benefit" from a school system that "completely fails to perform its most basic function of educating children," The Baltimore Sun reported on the couple's "Republican ties" and described them as "filing a sweeping lawsuit against the Baltimore school system."

The Pattersons' complaint further alleges that the school district "made false entries in public records," and charges it with "racketeering, mail fraud, theft, and embezzlement." A spokesman claimed that the mayor and the city "care deeply about education" and that they "have made it a priority to ensure that all students can succeed both inside the classroom and beyond." They vowed to "review and respond to the lawsuit, in court, properly."

The Pattersons aren't sure how far their litigation will go, but say they had to do something, because "that vortex of [government] incompetence" has affected Baltimore's children for generations. "We've heard for decades about some of the failures to educate and things like social promotion, lack of resources," Jovani said, adding: "And year after year, time after time, all we hear is, ‘Well, this is the way it's always been. This is the way it's always going to be.'"

As a teacher herself, Shawnda says the blame for the schools' poor performance belongs with bureaucrats and administrators. "Most of the time, my class size was pushing 40 kids with no assistant. To effectively teach 40 children, that is a challenging task," she told the Daily Wire.

But the Pattersons refuse to accept that Baltimore's schools must be consigned to failure, and hope their lawsuit will serve as a wake-up call to the city and school system. They want officials to know this kind of catastrophic incompetence no longer will be tolerated.

Given these examples, it's clear that parents are not backing down from defending their children despite attacks from the left and threats from the Biden Administration's Justice Department.

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