Divided House passes GOP bill for hot-button school issues
WASHINGTON — A divided House on Friday passed legislation that would require schools to make public library catalogs and curricula, and obtain parental consent before granting a student’s request to change their gender-identifying pronouns, part of a Republican push for political benefit from a furious debate on controversial social issues.
The bill, passed almost entirely along party lines by a vote of 213 to 208, is an important part of the Republican agenda sponsors call the Parents Bill of Rights Act. It stands no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden, whose advisers say it puts transgender children at risk without actually supporting the parents.
The passage reflected the latest bid by House Republicans to focus on issues that animate the right-wing base by promoting what they denounce as commonsense changes that could appeal to voters across the ideological spectrum. Republican proponents describe the bill as a measure “to ensure that parents’ rights are respected and protected in the nation’s public schools,” claiming the goal is to provide students with the best learning experience possible.
“Sending a child to a public school does not terminate parental rights at the door,” said Indiana Republican Representative Erin Houchin. “It gives power back to parents.”
Democrats argue instead that the bill could create a legal basis for school censorship and book bans, creating divisions based on sexual orientation and gender identity. During the debate on the House floor this week, some Democrats dubbed the legislation the “Politics Over Parents Act,” calling it extreme and a means of bringing political strife over social issues into classrooms while trying to enforce parental rights that already exist. to codify.
“This bill doesn’t give parents more rights than they already have,” said Pennsylvania Democrat Representative Mary Gay Scanlon. Instead, she said, it offered a “one size fits all approach across the country, assuming the size that fits is a right-wing straitjacket.”
Debate over the measure heated up as Republicans and Democrats argued over its implications, taking a cautious approach to some of the most fraught and emotional issues facing children and parents.
For Republicans, many of whom have opposed transgender rights altogether, it was an opportunity to highlight the fears that many parents have publicly expressed about how schools deal with gender issues, and to respond to the broader fears among their conservative supporters over progressive indoctrination, while at the same time giving impetus to states passing similar bills.
In emotional speeches in the House of Representatives, Democrats said that the seemingly innocuous language of the 30-page bill concealed politics that would endanger LGBT children. And they warned that such legislation would make it easier for right-wing groups to campaign against books they wanted banned, potentially leaving school boards with lawsuits if they broke the law.
The bill requires schools to warn parents if a student wants to change his or her pronouns, or change the bathroom or locker room he or she used at school. If a school does not obtain parental consent for such changes, it could lose federal funding. Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert won the inclusion of an amendment requiring schools to warn parents if a student whose biological sex is male participates in a sport intended for women and girls.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said the effect would be “requiring schools to exclude trans, non-binary, and LGBT youth, even if it puts those youth at risk.” She added that “for so many children from abuse, school is their only safe place.”
Representative Mark Takano, a Democrat of California and a former teacher, shared his own experience of children being severely punished at home after teachers abused students to their parents.
“If a home isn’t safe for LGBT kids, schools become their safe place,” he said, noting that the bill would “incite good teachers to do bad things” and “force kids back in the closet.” It is a fundamental invasion of privacy that puts children at risk.”
Republicans, in response, insisted that the bill do no such thing.
“It doesn’t force any teacher to reveal private conversations or conversations about sexual orientation,” North Carolina Republican Representative Virginia Foxx said.
She said it would only require a school to warn parents if a student wants to change their pronouns or use a bathroom or locker room designated for a different gender.
Many of the arguments for the bill were framed as criticisms of teacher unions, which Republicans say are unfairly pushing their own agenda at the expense of parents. Ms Foxx said they had “worked to push progressive politics in the classroom while leaving parents in the dark”.
Republicans first addressed the issue of progressive politics ostensibly rampant in public schools in 2021 after former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said while campaigning for his longtime post in a special election: “I don’t think parents should tell schools what they should teach.”
His Republican rival, Glenn Youngkin, seized on the comment and used the issue — which resonated with some parents angry at how schools responded to the pandemic — to propel himself to victory and win the governorship later that year .
The issue has also become a powerful one for Republicans in other states. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis pushed through the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, which led to the banning of books like “And Tango Makes Three,” an award-winning children’s book about the true story of a same-sex penguin couple. This week his government took steps to expand a controversial policy banning classroom education on sexual orientation and gender identity by extending it to all classes.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans defended their bill as a simple piece of legislation that would help provide the best learning experiences for students, mandate two parent-teacher conferences a year, and force schools to disclose their budgets and curriculum.
“They’re afraid parents might come in,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said of the Democratic opposition. “They are afraid of the sun coming into the classroom.”
During three days of debate, in committees and on the House floor, while defending against Democratic attacks, Republicans said they were not in favor of banning books.
Mr Roy said that “nobody wants to pull books about Rosa Parks.” But he chose “Flamer,” a graphic novel about a teenager struggling with his Catholic identity and a boy scout coming to terms with being gay. Mr. Roy described it as a “graphic book about young boys performing sex acts at summer camp” and said it was the kind of book that had no place in public schools.
In response, the Democrats noted that the American Library Association opposes the legislation and considers it a catalyst for more book bans and censorshipand said this was one of the core goals of the legislation.
“It’s about banning books,” said Massachusetts Democrat Representative Jim McGovern. “This bill will be weaponized by far-right groups and used to threaten schools with legal action if they do not remove books from their shelves. They want to ban books about black and brown people and they want to ban books about LGBTQI+ people.”
Ms. Scanlon called the legislation a “stunning act of federal scope that would essentially nationalize our education system.” And she noted that the libertarian Cato Institute concerns about the legislationclaiming that the bill “suffered from a fundamental flaw: it is not constitutional.”
Five Republicans voted against the bill: Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mike Lawler of New York, and Matt Rosendale of Montana. Republicans have a four-seat majority in the House, but the bill was able to pass despite the defection due to Democratic absences.
The White House said in a policy statement it did not support the bill because “the bill doesn’t really help parents support their children in school,” while gay, lesbian and transgender students are at higher risk.