By DAVID BOYLE
Since my last article, hundreds more Alaskans have testified in writing to the House Education Committee on HB 105, Parents Rights in Education. The majority of the 254 new testifiers supported the bill, which was authored by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in support of parents.
Here is the updated chart showing supporters and opponents of the bill:
| Support | Oppose | Teachers Supporting* | Teachers Opposed* | Template Emails (included in the Opposed count) |
| 810 | 573 | 30 | 34 | 211 |
*This includes only those teachers who self-identified.
The previous number of template emails increased from 189 to 211. If one discounts the 211 template emails, then Alaskans strongly support HB 105 by 810 for to 362 opposed.
Here is what HB 105 does:
1. The right of a parent to opt-in their child for sex education, rather than opt-out.
2. The right of a parent to know what is in their child’s school records. The law would prohibit schools keeping two sets of records, one for parents and one for the school.
3. The right of parents to designate the official name for their child.
4. Sex education classes cannot begin until after a child is in 5th grade.
5. The right of a student to sex-based privacy in restrooms and locker rooms.
Here are some testimonies from those supporting Parents Rights in Education:
- As an educator, I am embarrassed by some of the testimonies of teachers I have heard. As a parent, I am mortified that these educators believe my parental abilities are not adequate to teach my own children values, morals, and character.
- I cannot imagine any teacher, no matter their love for children, could ever know or love my children more than myself and my husband. It simply isn’t possible.
- To pose that school is more safe than my home is similarly untrue and offensive. I love my children more than you do. Period. Full stop.
- The fact that there are educators, calling to keep parents in the dark and believing they deserve to be the ultimate authority of children, should make every parent look very hard at the seriousness of the rot in our education system in this state.
- I have tremendous concern and fear for my son and his education process. The system is making a choice to sever the relationship between educator and parent. I am my son’s mother. No one else.
- I am the one that gets to hear the parents after their sons/daughters have tried to take their lives, after they’ve been coached by teachers and counselors to lie and deceive their own parents and families which tells these vulnerable, impressionable children that their own parents are the enemy.
And here are some testimonies from those opposing Parents Rights in Education:
- Parents have a right to direct the education of their children, but that does not trump the rights of the children themselves.
- You put trans youth in such a vulnerable and dangerous place by forcing them to use locker rooms and restrooms against their gender. You are increasing the risks of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide.
- Why does it matter if the person using the stall next to you has a penis or a vagina? Can someone explain this to me? It’s like having separate drinking water fountains for blacks and whites during the Jim Crow era.
- Parents may want to limit and control the information that is available to their children, but this is not always in their best interests.
- Many oppose this bill. We know what it’s about. We know that it comes from harmful transphobic and fearful rhetoric that is not based on fact. We know that the agenda behind it does not seek to put children first or their families. We know that this bill intends to pry into the private medical information of students.
- HB 105 would empower bigoted, uninformed parents to litigate against schools and school districts simply for doing what’s best for their students.
- I know personally young trans people who have committed suicide in Juneau in the wake of this wave of politically-motivated and entirely fabricated otherization of trans people.
- This bill is just a thoughtless copy-and-paste job from a lazy administration that seeks to demonize children for its own political gain. Shame on you, shame on the governor, and shame on anyone who actually promotes this kind of garbage in our schools.
- You are intentionally letting parents supersede their own children’s agency and identity in an attempt to provide “parental rights.”
- I oppose HB 105 and the disgusting culture warrior bigotry it represents and enables. And you should too. Shame on any excremental excuse for a human who does.
The bill passed out of the House Education Committee but not after much debate on its merits. Rep. Rebecca Himschoot (Sitka, Unaffiliated) offered a “bill killer” amendment — a Parental Involvement factor — to include a cost factor of 1.005 for increases in administrative and education support personnel in the various districts.
This Parental Involvement factor would be included in the foundation formula, so it multiplies the funding by the state. It would add more than $6 million to K12 funding.
Rep. Himschoot reasoned that because more parents would be involved in choosing to “opt-in” their children to sex education that it would require more paperwork and increase the schools’ administrative workload significantly.
She also said the increased funding would also be required to modify locker rooms and bathrooms for the transgender students. But, as usual, this funding is fungible, and it could be spent on anything by a district.
Rep. Himschoot noted that parents are the key to a child’s education. She said, “They (parents) are number one.” But she voiced concern that requiring parents to “opt-in” their children to sex education would “put up a barrier” to kids learning some really important information.
Rep. CJ McCormick (Bethel, Democrat) was much more vocal in his opposition to the bill. He “staunchly” opposes the passage of Hb 105. He said, “Suicide prevention activists have identified this legislation as a problem and have come before us and told us that in all likelihood this will lead to higher rates of suicide.”
McCormick then said, “This bill strips our state’s young people of the ability to make choices for themselves and define who they are and the ability to live with dignity”.
These same “young people” aren’t allowed to get tattoos, aren’t old enough to drink alcoholic beverages, cannot drive or vote, but McCormick thinks they should be able to determine what gender they would like to be and should be able to get puberty blockers without parental involvement.
He did not mention the role of parents in raising their children. He seems to support that a child’s gender decision can be made without involving parents. Ironically, under state law parents are responsible for their kids until they turn 18. But according to Representative McCormick that should not apply to a child’s gender decisions which would dramatically affect the rest of their life.
Rep. Mike Prax (North Pole, Republican), said, “Parents have a moral responsibility to raise their children. They are a gift from God. They (parents) have a moral responsibility, so they have to have the right, even if they make mistakes.”
The bill now goes to House Judiciary where it may be heard by 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Here is a link to the bill and more comments.
HB 105 is so important to our children and parents. Currently the relationships between them are being eroded by those in power (the teachers/administrators who are not taking into account the whole life of the child). Our system is so fouled up that I don’t know if it will ever be truly straightened out, but by prayer and action it can get better a little at a time.
You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about other than to follow along with what’s becoming traditional rhetoric against schools. Teachers don’t want to brainwash your kid and do some kind of a leftist zombie. Most teachers that I knew and worked with were Republicans. They had what was best for the kids in mind and shared a frustration with some groups of parents because it seemed that they did not. It seemed to them that what was most important was for their child to remain eligible to play basketball. Down here in Florida, the governor is getting ready to sign into law a declaration that limits what schools can teach kids about their sexuality. It is expanding the age limit from third grade to 8th grade I believe. Yes there are some wacko teachers they give the rest of the good teachers a bad name. That goes with any profession though. The Bible warns us of false prophets. Hopefully parents and students can identify who they are but they can be tricky at times.
I don’t understand the people arguing that this erodes the rights of children? Parents are adults, parents have rights. Parents raise children to learn what is right and what is wrong. The children don’t have the same rights because they have to learn them from their parents! Can you imagine a world where children get to decide right from wrong on their own?! That’s why we need more parent involvement. Kids are developing, they can’t make these decisions on their own, and it certainly shouldn’t be up to corrupt educators to fill the gap.
The only thing that will change this, unfortunately, is a Tavistock situation. Up to 1000 families joined a class action lawsuit against a gender care facility in Europe for rushing children into treatment that caused irreparable harm. You never hear advocates discuss the consequences of puberty blockers, hormone sterilization, or surgical mutilation. Or that suicidal thoughts often continue after transitioning. The pompousness of teachers wanting to take over parental rights is abhorrent. You have no right to aide in changing a child’s gender or teaching young children sex ed. You are not a gender therapist, psychiatrist, medical professional, family counselor, and most importantly…YOU are NOT that child’s parent.
Let’s not forget that there is an astronomical sexual abuse problem committed by male and female teachers against students in this country. Liberal teachers are encouraging an anything goes mentality with sexually explicit books in schools, which parents aren’t allowed to read at school board meetings.
Most teachers are invaluable to supporting students and families. It’s unfortunate that activists are taking over an honorable profession.
They’re not really taking over the profession. There professing to be the mouthpiece of the teachers, but that isn’t necessarily true. I never join the NEA and I know most of the teachers that I worked with didn’t neither. We just enjoyed doing our work the way we saw fit and what matched district and state curriculum. The NEA was nothing to us but a sponge sucking up dues and money. Any raise I ever got came from the superintendent and the school board. Yes there were nea representatives in the school building and they thought they were all that when they got to get on a plane and go to some conference somewhere with pay. But they couldn’t conduct their business during normal contract time and they had to pay for any copies they made on the school copy machine. It’s best if you continue to badmouth the nea, but leave the teachers out of it. They are two separate organizations.
Appreciate the comment and will keep it in mind. Unfortunately, this is where we are now all over the country. Starting with Cardona and Weingarten on down. Most of the teachers I’ve met in life have been liberal, but not to the extent of activism and indoctrination we’re seeing now. My criticism was directed at them, though I don’t see speaking the truth as “badmouthing.” As I said, most teachers are invaluable.
I knew some teachers that were liberal, but I mostly hung out with conservatives and others that I hung out with I didn’t care because they seemed like normal well-balanced thoughtful people. I can’t say that I ever knew in my 25 years a radical liberal teacher. Wait. There was that one guy in Leadville Colorado that had all kinds of rainbow flags hanging down from his ceiling and used them as a political statement. He was made to take them down by the administration because they were deemed to fire hazard.
Not the religious type, but this bill is truly good against evil. I will pray that it passes by some miracle.
Since when has the legislature given a damn what we think?
I want to know who appointed these Educators as God? Only God has the moral authority to designate what gender you are and biologically in the Human Race there are only two genders, and they are not fluid. The Legislatures who have spoken against this Bill I hope they will be removed by their Constituencies’. I have a grandson in the ASD, and I’m appalled that they think the parents and Grandparents should have no say in the development of are young children.
Steve you better get your grandson out of ASD as I did. They absolutely cannot be trusted. They are proven LIARS! Why would 34 teachers oppose this legislation??? There should be absolutely no opposition to what parents want for THEIR children. Teacher should have their OWN children if they want control!
34 teachers is a pretty low percentage when you factor in the hundreds of staff that ASD employes. You could probably find 34 devil worshipers in any profession if you turned over enough rocks.
Teachers are supposed to work FOR us. We are paying their salary!!! They need a wake up call! All my life I have encountered certain teachers that somehow think they “know more” than parents. I have even met teachers that think it is OK to have sexual relationships with students. A President as well for that matter.
For some reason you enjoy spreading and misinformation. You try to lump all teachers into a small little basket of tainted ones and that’s certainly not the truth. Most teachers are just hard-working old school good folks
These teachers evidently just love castration, mastectomies, scalpels, and drug addiction for children. And thats just what they are admitting to.
These teachers evidently love castration, mastectomies, surgery, and drug addiction for children. And thats just what they are admitting to.
The comments opposing this bill are frightening to me as a parent. I will say that after reading them, not a single one of those comments were from a parent.
Parents raise children until they reach adulthood. Teachers instruct in subjects while a child attends a class. They are NOT interchangeable.
Some parents didn’t do much raising to adulthood like you say. They rely on the school to raise and babysit their kids and feed them three squares a day. You must be thinking old school.
Public education is child abuse.
Public education in Anchorage School district is child abuse. Fixed it for you.
Yes, trans have a higher suicide rate.. Because they are demonstrably unstable individuals.
You are 100% correct Paul. I have NEVER met a (natural) parent who would be against this legislation.
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