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Minutes for SB496 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Establishing the parents' bill of rights for parents of students attending elementary or secondary school in this state.
Minutes Content for Wed, Feb 16, 2022
Chairperson Baumgardner opened the hearing on SB496 - Establishing the parents' bill of rights for parents of students attending elementary or secondary school in this state.
Tamera Lawrence, Revisor, gave an overview of the bill.(Attachment 1)
Proponent Testimony:
Brittany Jones, Director of Policy and Engagement for Kansas Family Voice, believes children are given to parents and families, not the state. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. The right has also come into play specifically when dealing with a religious freedom rights of minority faiths. These rights are backed by federal statutes that protect parent's rights to review records as well as statutes that requires schools to give parents access to curriculum.
Opponents of this type of explicit protection make the same old arguments - parents don't know what's best for their children. They would prefer that children be raised by the education establishment. All this runs contrary to court precedence and places too much burden on the school system. The overt religious hostility that has been evidenced by opponents of various types of parental rights legislation is not acceptable under Supreme Court jurisprudence and should not be acceptable in our society.
Parents are best positioned to know and raise their kids. Educational institutions can be an asset to this relationship by recognizing and protecting the fundamental relationship between a parent and their child which is vital to ensuring the stability of our society. (Attachment 2)
Elizabeth Patton, State Director, Americans for Prosperity - Kansas urges the support of this bill which sets up a simple and basic framework for recognizing the rights of parents to play a key role in their child's education. The language of this bill is simple - materials should be available for review. Knowledge of what is being taught and how it is being taught is critical for parents to be able to make informed decisions about their children's educations and for lawmakers to make informed decisions about education policy.
Curriculum transparency and parental involvement are key ingredients in the current ESSA. In a poll of teachers, a clear majority agreed parents should be somewhat to very involved in selecting curriculum and materials selection in their districts but only 31 percent are. A majority, 54 percent, were in favor of allowing parents to opt their children out of classes, curricula or units they disapprove of.
Because each child is different and deserves a menu of options - programs, services, courses, and schools that are designed to address their unique interests and aptitudes. The goal of our education system should not be that of standardizing children but to allow every student to discover, develop, and apply their talents to realize their full potential and maximize their capacity to contribute to society. (Attachment 3)
Mike O'Neal, Kansas Policy Institute (KPI), stated that there has been much concern expressed in Kansas and nationally over K-12 curriculum content and the content of teacher professional development materials. These have largely escaped public scrutiny, leading to suspicion, mistrust and a call for bans on what is perceived as attempts to indoctrinate or inculcate students with certain ideologies and/or to cause students to unnecessarily question their own values and beliefs. CRT stories abound nationwide. Curriculum transparency and parental involvement are key ingredients to the current ESSA. In a poll, conducted by SurveyUSA and commissioned by KPI, parents overwhelmingly indicated they believe they should have the primary say in their child's education (88%). With many state legislatures weighing in on parental bill of rights and curriculum transparency legislation, it is a virtual certainly that these issues will play a major role in upcoming primary and general election races across the country and in Kansas. (Attachment 4)
Neutral Testimony:
Mary Sinclair, President, Parent Teacher Association (PTA), said it is the primary mission of the PTA is to support parent engagement in education. However Kansas PTA cannot support the overall bill as written because they need more clarity on the need and intent of these stated rights in relation to K-12 education. Those concerns are listed in testimony.(Attachment 5)
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director, Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), supports the critical goal of involving and supporting parents in education. KASB is neutral because almost everything in the bill is aspirational and already covered by current law and/or addressed in policies that KASB recommends to its members. Therefore the bill is not necessary.
Included in testimony is a list of the provisions of the bill along with KASB's analysis. (Attachment 6)
Opponent Testimony:
Lauren Tice Miller, Director of Government Relations and Elections, Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), explained this member-led organization is guided by a slate of six core values and this bill goes against every single one of them. Three of them were addressed in testimony:
- Partnership - KNEA believes educating a child should be a partnership between parents and teachers and this bill will erode that relationship.
- Democracy - Voters in each school district determine the direction of their neighborhood schools every time they participate in nonpartisan school board elections. This bill undermines the authority of local school boards by making unfunded legislative mandates.
- Collective Action - Kansas should be ensuring that teaching is the most attractive job in the state so Kansas should be working actively to recruit quality professionals, nurturing the joy of teaching, and trusting these professionals to do their jobs. This bill is not the way to do that. (Attachment 7)
Mitch Rucker, Early Learning Policy Advisor, Kansas Action for Children (KAC), opposed this bill because it creates an adversarial environment for teachers and parents instead of building positive relationships between them. KAC opposes any move to weaken childhood immunization requirements and is concerned this bill will exacerbate disparities, or at least differences, in the education we offer to students based on the cultural makeup of their community. KAC doesn't want the books available to children in school to depend on what others find agreeable. Their zip code should not dictate the quality and depth of the education our state offers them. Bills like SB496 weaken our public system, plant seeds, distrust in education professionals, and set a bad example for our students as they learn how to solve real problems in their daily lives.(Attachment 8)
Michael Poppa, Mainstream Coalition, agrees with the concept that a parent should have rights and access to information regarding their child's education which is a crucial element of their development, quality of life, and long-term success. Parents already have access to information regarding their child's education and to the teachers, staff and administration who support them through their school day. Mainstream Coalition agrees with the principle that public schools should not have a role in the religious training of the child and there are already protections in place against that in our state's bill of rights. And our schools already hold to the ideas of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This bill would distort our history and revert our values back to an era when we valued one perspective over all others, that of the white, straight, Christian, higher income family. (Attachment 9)
Sarah Irsik-Good, Board Member, Immunize Kansas Coalition, spoke about the unintended consequences that may result from the passage of this bill as it is written. Specifically the elimination of current required vaccinations for schools and childcare facilities through providing a quasi-philosophical exemption. Vaccinations are among the greatest achievements of public health. The current schedule protects against many diseases that once claimed the lives of thousands each year in the U.S. Childhood vaccines are decades old and are safe and effective.(Attachment 10)
Judith Deedy, Executive Director Game On for Kansas Schools, supports parent rights in the realm of public education but question the necessity of this bill. One objection is a change in the immunization laws and a requirement to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Game On is wary of the optics of this bill. (Attachment 11)
Samantha Neill, public school educator and 2018 Kansas Teacher of the Year, expressed her concern of a critical shortage of highly qualified educators due to this bill. This bill steals learning time from students requiring their educators to duplicate work. It stifles innovation, creativity and adaptability forcing educators to choose between enriching lessons and the threat of punishment.
Local school boards already have policies in place to "vet" curriculum materials and parents have never had more access to what is being taught in classrooms than they do now. SB496 will drive away good educators because this bill puts into question the kind of people they are. We can build the schools and communities we need to thrive, but it must be done TOGETHER. (Attachment12)
Joel Addis, veteran educator, listed how Derby public schools provide transparency to it's patrons in a variety of ways. This bill, with all its requirements, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to allow professional educators to deviate from their prescribed lesson plans. The bill as written restricts the teacher's ability to adapt instructional approaches to their students' needs and steals learning time from students. Adaptability allows professional educators to adjust their lesson plans to the learning styles of their students. (Attachment 13)
Rabbi Moti Rieber, Executive Director, Kansas Interfaith Action, listed three issues with the bill:
- An education that centers the experience of those who have unquestionably been oppressed in this society is central to knowing who we are as a people to building a better "more perfect union".
- Diversity is the world we live in and the world my kids will live in and it's important for them to know how to navigate that.
- This issue is being ginned up for political advantage and to undermine confidence in public schools, with an eye toward moving its funding elsewhere.
- Institutes a massive policy revision in the area of childhood immunizations. (Attachment 14)
Opponent Written Only Testimony:
Jerry Henn, Assistant Executive Director, USA-Kansas and Kansas School Superintendents Association(Attachment 15)
Laura Taylor Wiltanger, Private Citizen and Public School Educator (Attachment 16)
Martha Pint, Co-President, League of Women Voters of Kansas (Attachment 17)
Deena Horst and Ben Jones, Legislative Liaisons, Kansas State School Board (Attachment 18)
Stephen Linkous, Chief of Staff, Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (Attachment 19)
Lisa Huesers (Attachment 20)
David Embers, M.D. (Attachment 21)
The Chair closed the hearing on SB496.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:11 pm.
The next meeting will be February 17, 2022, 1:30 pm in room 144-S.
