(RepublicanNews.org) – Not a single House Democrat voted for a bill to give parents the right to inspect public school curricula or to be notified about the school’s policy on masking and child development.
Instead, some characterized the Parents Bill of Rights Act (PBRA) as the work of “extreme MAGA” Republicans who actually want to ban books or make life difficult for LGBTQ+ children.
The bill passed despite the complete lack of Democratic votes and a handful of Republican representatives who voted “no.”
The bill would require schools to make what they teach available to parents, and it would require schools to inform parents if school staff promote a child’s desire to gender transition.
Parents around the country have grown frustrated over what they perceive as public schools denying families information about school curricula and denying parents the right to receive reports about their child’s physical and mental health. Parent groups around the country have begun protesting local school board meetings during the pandemic, only to find themselves labeled “domestic terrorists” by the federal government.
The Republican-sponsored PBRA is a response to this newly adversarial relationship between federal government regulators and parents.
Predictably, progressive Democrats attacked the bill, labeling it as an attempt to take away students’ freedom and harm children who belong to minority classes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the bill didn’t align with her values, which she described as “freedom over fascism.”
Democrats with views similar to Ocasio-Cortez’s also blasted the bill, making the familiar accusation that conservatives want to literally white-wash history and prevent children from learning about America’s past. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said “Extreme MAGA Republicans” don’t want the children of America to learn about the Holocaust.
Jeffries said the real reason for the PBRA was to make it easier for conservatives to ban books.
Republicans countered that the books some parents want to be removed from public school libraries were explicit in nature and inappropriate for children.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanNews.org
