Iowa Association of School Boards lobbying against parental rights again – opposing opt-in requirement for gender identity instruction to elementary students

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During a Tuesday subcommittee in the Iowa Senate, our friends from the Iowa Association of School Boards were back advocating against the interests of Iowa parents.

The bill prohibited teaching about gender identity to elementary students unless prior written permission was provided by parents.

At the heart of the issue — should moms and dads know when their young sons and daughters will be taught things like people can “choose to be a boy, a girl, both, neither or something else.”

And if you believe moms and dads should have that knowledge, you were not represented by one single education group in the state of Iowa.

Not one.

Taxpayer-funded lobbyists were lobbying against parental rights in education. While disappointing, it is also nothing new.

You can read more about them here. Here. And here.

And, unfortunately, below…

Phil Jeneary, who represents the Iowa Association of School Boards, said the group is opposed to the bill. He agreed with a previous speaker who said the bill is an incursion to local control in terms of school boards and educators, which obviously ignores the most basic form of local control — the home and the parents.

“One of the things kind of having the schools do this, you know, schools shouldn’t be at the whim of the legislature to either start or stop education based on the whims of the legislature, because, you know, the legislature can change and it’s a dangerous precedent to start going down the road of what schools can and cannot teach based on a specific legislature and also putting requirements on what type of education our students can receive,” Jeneary said. “We don’t want the legislature dictating what can and cannot be taught because that doesn’t benefit all students.”

Jeneary said it should be a “local decision.”

“Most schools, if not all, already have a process for curriculum in this area that, um, notifies the parents of when it’s going to be taught and if there are issues parents should be talking with the teachers, with the administration on what can be done if they do have issues.”

Author: Jacob Hall