Democrat Tells Parent to ‘Shut Up’ About Child’s Education

A Democratic lawmaker in New Hampshire has attracted some negative attention for telling a voter to “shut up” about a proposal that would give parents greater say over their child’s public school education.

On Thursday, the New Hampshire Journal reported that state Representative Tommy Hoyt received an email from a voter earlier in the week urging him to support an unamended version of legislation that implements a so-called “Parental Bill of Rights,” a boilerplate version of legislation that has gained traction within conservative circles at the state and federal level in recent years amid an ongoing culture war over content taught in public schools.

The proposed legislation—a similar version of which was passed at the federal level by the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year as well as a number of Republican states around the country—typically seek to compel school districts to publish its curriculum online, mandate parents be allowed to meet with their children’s teachers, and give parents a say when schools either craft or update their policies.

Critics of such legislation have said it infringes on the privacy rights of the child and potentially hamstrings educators from providing inclusive content in classrooms. Meanwhile, others have said it could compel school districts to “out” LGBTQ+ students, potentially putting them in an unsafe environment with non-accepting parents.

Hoyt, a teacher’s union-backed candidate who secured a narrow victory over incumbent Republican Mark Alliegro in last year’s elections, was one of those critics.

When a parent emailed him to urge him to support the legislation ahead of its 195-190 defeat on Thursday, Hoyt allegedly responded to the parent and told them to “shut up,” saying they lacked the expertise to know how best to run the state’s classrooms.

“Do you know why children’s results tanked during COVID? Their parents were incompetent teachers,” Hoyt wrote. “Do your children a favor, let the teachers teach, and shut up. You’re clearly no professional.”

The email—the authenticity of which Hoyt confirmed to the New Hampshire Journal—caught the attention of conservative activist Corey DeAngelis, who boosted Hoyt’s email on social media on Thursday, helping it gain traction nationally in conservative-leaning outlets like Fox News and the New York Post.

Newsweek reached out to Hoyt via email for comment. However, he told the New Hampshire Journal on Thursday he regretted his word choice.

“The way I feel is that children’s test scores in school performance dropped off drastically was because they didn’t have teachers,” he told the outlet. “And the parents that thought, ‘We can replace them and can tell them what to do,’ was not effective. I probably could have used better words.”

Reached for comment by Fox News, however, Hoyt declined to comment further, saying, “nah, I’ll take my own advice and shut up.”