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Iowa lawmakers send sweeping education bills to governor
Proposals would restrict school library books, limit LGBTQ instruction, cut certain regulations
DES MOINES — After weeks of negotiation and competing proposals, Iowa lawmakers gave final passage to two sweeping education bills on Thursday that would limit LGBTQ instruction and cut regulations in other areas.
The bills are now eligible to be signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Senate File 496 wraps together several education priorities for Republicans that have remained fairly consistent as it has ping-ponged between the chambers:
- Teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity would be barred in kindergarten through sixth grade.
- Books depicting or describing sex acts would be banned from school libraries. Religious texts would be exempted.
- Schools would need to notify parents if a student requests changing their name or pronouns.
Reynolds said in a statement the two bills passed Thursday are part of her pledge to enact education reforms and allow Iowa schools to "refocus on the fundamentals."
“Parents are the ultimate decisionmakers for their children," she said. "This legislation defines parents’ rights in law, requires transparency,and sets boundaries to protect Iowa’s children from woke indoctrination. I will always fight for Iowa’s parents as they know what is best for their children.”
The education policy bill passed the House, 57-38, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
While the bill has changed substantially from her recommendations, those provisions and others in the bill are largely based on a bill Reynolds proposed at the beginning of this legislative session.
Most of the bill would go into effect July 1, after the end of the current school year.
‘Sowing fear,’ or ‘wrong to keep secrets from parents’
Democrats reiterated their objections that the bill would break students’ trust with their teachers and marginalize LGBTQ students.
“Instead of marginalizing groups of students, sowing fear and division over books and making it harder to better understand and support our kids, we should be focusing our efforts on building trusted partnerships,” said Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny.
Republicans continued to champion the bill as a win for parents’ rights and keeping what they described as a political agenda out of schools.
“It is wrong for schools to keep secrets from parents about their kids,” said Rep. Skyler Wheeler of Hull, the bill’s floor manager. “It is wrong to push political agendas in the classroom. And it is wrong to put pornography in front of children.”
One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said Republican lawmakers were "trampling on the First Amendment" by censoring school books and curriculum.
"Iowans are sick of these divisive culture war proposals," said executive director Courtney Reyes. "We call on Gov. Reynolds to veto this legislation and start from scratch on a proposal that benefits all Iowans rather than continually targeting gay and transgender children.”
Transparency, parents’ rights
The bill also includes a number of provisions intended to expand transparency and allow more parents’ involvement in education.
Schools would need to post a policy online detailing the process for parents to review instructional materials in the classroom and request removal of any educational material in the classroom or a school library.
Schools also would need to post the list of books in their school library online, as well as processes to challenge books in the library. The identity of anyone requesting removal of a book or classroom material would be kept confidential.
Schools would need express parents’ permission to administer any surveys that ask about political affiliation, mental health problems, sexual behaviors or religious practices of the student or their families, among other things.
The bill would codify in law a parent’s right to make decisions for the upbringing of their minor child, including their moral and religious upbringing, education and medical care — making a specific exemption for a law Reynolds signed earlier this year that prohibits transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming health care.
Beyond those measures, House lawmakers added other elements they wanted to see passed earlier this month. But Senate lawmakers took most of them out, keeping the following in place:
- Students would be able to transfer to a different building in the same school district if they experience harassment or bullying at the school they attend.
- Home-schooled children with special needs would be able to dual-enroll and receive special education instruction at their home-school district.
Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford said the bill follows through on several promises House Republicans made and laid out at the beginning of the session.
“I think it just shows that — whether people agree or disagree with what we're doing — at the beginning of session, several of these pieces were a part of our first 13 bills that we laid out,” Grassley said. “And just shows that we're continuing to work on the things that we say we're going to.”
School regulation cuts
The House also gave final approval to a bill that would cut regulations at K-12 schools around required classes and provide flexibility for who can teach instruction and how schools can offer classes.
The bill, Senate File 391, was pitched by Reynolds early in the session as a way to remove burdens from schools and to cut costs.
Among the blll’s provisions:
- Schools would no longer be required to report a comprehensive improvement plan to the state.
- Schools could hire a public librarian to be a school librarian, rather than a certified teacher librarian.
- Schools would be allowed to teach multiple sequential units of a subject in the same classroom.
- Requirements would be removed that schools offer financial literacy instruction and four units of a foreign language.
- Community college instructors could teach more classes at the high school level.
- No more than five days, or 30 hours of instruction, could be delivered online.
“Schools should be focused on teaching, not on monotonous, duplicative reporting and overly restrictive curriculum requirements,” Reynolds said in a statement Thursday.
Between the two bills, requirements to teach about HIV and AIDS, as well as HPV and the availability of the HPV vaccine, would be removed from law. Schools still would be required to teach about sexually transmitted diseases and teaching about those specific diseases would be optional.
Democrats opposed the bill, saying it will weaken Iowa’s educational standards and result in less educated students.
“The amendment is watering down the requirements of students and of teachers,” Rep. Sue Cahill, D-Marshalltown, said.
Comments: cmccullough@qctimes.com
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