House GOP passes parents' rights school bill after AOC, Dems cry 'fascism'

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

<https://nypost.com/2023/03/24/house-gop-passes-school-bill-dems-cry-
fascism/>

House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to pass an education bill aimed at
protecting parental rights on Friday despite outcry from Democrats like
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who likened the law to “fascism.”

The GOP passed the Parents Bill of Rights Act in a 213-208 vote, with just
five Republicans opposing the measure. No Democrats voted in favor of the
bill.

“This bill is not complex or complicated,” said Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.),
who authored the bill and defended it Thursday from the House floor.

“Nor should it be partisan or polarizing and contrary to what you may hear
from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it is not an attack on
our hard-working teachers, who will always be the heroes in my eyes.”

The Parents Bill of Rights — which has been championed by House Speaker
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and was the brainchild of GOP conference
chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) — would require public schools to
disclose all curricula, reading lists, library books and budget costs, as
well as force administrators and teachers to seek parents’ consent before
changing a child’s gender status.

“Parents are the primary stakeholders in their child’s education, and
House Republicans are working to protect their right to know what is going
on inside their child’s classroom,” Stefanik said in a statement after the
bill passed.

Letlow added that the bill was “not an attempt to have Congress dictate
their curriculum, or determine the books in the library.”

“Instead, this bill aims to bring more transparency and accountability to
education, allowing parents to be informed and when they have questions
and concerns, to lawfully bring them to their local school boards,” she
said.

The law makes good on a campaign promise from the House speaker that his
Republican majority would keep education issues at the forefront of its
governing strategy.

Every Democrat opposed the education bill, with some citing concerns that
it would target LGBTQ+ students and ban certain books from school
libraries.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans don’t want the children of America to learn
about the Holocaust,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY),
referencing efforts by a local school board in Tennessee that had removed
the graphic novel “Maus” from one of its reading lists.

“They want to ban books, they want to bully the LGBTQ+ community, they
want to bring guns into classrooms, kindergarten and above. That’s their
educational agenda,” Jeffries, 52, claimed on the House floor Thursday.

“They want to ban a book called ‘Melissa,’ a book describing, in very
personal terms, the experience of a trans girl beginning to understand her
identity,” he continued.

At a press conference Friday, Jeffries further pointed to a Democratic
amendment that prohibited book banning at all grade levels, which died in
committee.

“Every single Republican voted against this amendment. In other words,
they voted to support the banning of books,” he said. “And in our view, in
our estimation, that includes the banning of books on the Holocaust, on
the Civil Rights Movement, on slavery, on women’s history, on Native
American history, on the LGBTQ journey, on Latino history, on Asian-
American history and as it relates to baseball.”

“Squad” member Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) drew a similar line of attack and
denounced the bill as “fascist.”

“This Republican bill is asking the government to force the outing of LGBT
people before they are ready,” the 33-year-old socialist firebrand said.

“When we talk about progressive values, I can say what my progressive
value is, and that is freedom over fascism.”

She was widely mocked for the remarks by other members of Congress.

“AOC says giving you the right to access school curriculum, books and
budgets is ‘fascist,’” fellow New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said on
Twitter.

“The truth is socialists don’t what [sic] you to know what your child is
being taught because it disrupts their agenda of indoctrination.”

“When Democrats can’t come up with a rational argument, they resort to
screeching about fascism,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the
House Committe on Education and the Workforce.

“Safeguarding parental rights is the furthest thing from a fascist
position — it’s about upholding the God-given rights of parents to make
decisions for their children. Maybe instead of pandering to their Leftist
base, Democrats should read the bill — unless that’s too much to ask,” she
added.

“Obviously House Democrats are lashing out because they know they are on
the losing side of this awakening of parents across the country. House
Republicans are ensuring that parents are the primary stakeholders in
their children’s future with the passage of the Parents Bill of Rights,
while the Far Left continues to advocate for radical CRT and woke
indoctrination,” Stefanik told The Post.

Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Matt Gaetz
of Florida, Michael Lawler of New York and Matthew Rosendale of Montana
also voted against the Parents Bill of Rights.

Gaetz defended his vote against the bill in a statement.

“From wokeness to funding to bathrooms to Critical Race Theory, the
federal government SHOULD NOT be involved in education,” he said.

“I don’t want to strengthen the federal Department of Education; I want to
abolish it. I don’t want Congress more involved in decisions that are best
made in local school districts; I want the Congress less involved.

“Therefore, I voted against today’s Republican bill to establish a federal
‘Parents Bill of Rights.'”

Rosendale also defended his opposition to the bill in a statement.

“The answer to an out-of-control education system is not turning more
control over to the federal government!” he said.

Stefanik introduced a similar bill in June 2022 as an amendment to the
2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

The idea was to allow troops and other parents of children attending the
160 Defense Department Education Activity-run elementary, middle and high
schools further insight into the curriculum their children were being
taught.

“There is no need for elementary school students to be taught radical
gender ideology, and parents deserve full transparency from DoDEA schools
about what is being taught in their child’s classroom,” Stefanik said when
she introduced the bill.

It was intended as the latest move by House Republicans to root out
“wokeism” in DoD schools and the military, something Rep. Jim Banks (R-
Ind.) has told The Post he wants to focus on during his tenure as chairman
of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Most recently, Banks’ committee has taken on the DoDEA’s review of Kelisa
Wing. On Thursday, Stefanik learned that DoDEA had reassigned Wing, the
organization’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, whose anti-
white social media comments garnered national attention last fall.

“I’m so exhausted at these white folx in these [professional development]
sessions this lady actually had the CAUdacity to say black people can be
racist too,” she wrote in one post from June 2020, using a portmanteau for
“Caucasian audacity.”

On Thursday, Stefanik said she learned Wing had been moved “to another
position that does not include diversity, equity and inclusion-specific
responsibilities,” which she suspects “has to do with the fact that we
[Republicans] have shined light on this.”

After asking for updates on Wing’s review since September, Stefanik
received the news just three hours before a House hearing Thursday on how
diversity, equity and inclusion efforts affect the Defense Department.

A congressional source close to the matter said the delay was a “huge”
example of why Stefanik’s Servicemember Parents Bill of Rights was needed.

“The timeliness of this response — three hours before today’s hearing —
was an attempt to subvert full Congressional oversight of DoDEA’s
politicized activities that inhibit the ability of servicemember parents
to participate in their children’s education,” the source told The Post.

In addition to Wing’s racially charged remarks, she had filled DoDEA
school libraries with more than 600 copies of left-leaning books she’d co-
authored — including titles such as “What Is White Privilege?” and “What
Does It Mean to Defund the Police?”

In October, about 45 copies of her books were available in 11 DOD school
libraries, according to a Substack report by OpenTheBooks, a right-leaning
nonprofit that tracks government spending. As of this month, that number
had grown to more than 600 books in 49 DOD schools, according to online
library databases and the report.

Stefanik in a statement Friday called the Parents Bill of Rights “a
critical step forward today to put parents back in the driver’s seat.”

“In the face of the woke agenda and radical CRT the Far Left is pushing
even in the midst of devastating learning loss, we are ensuring parents
have the transparency to know if their child is being properly equipped in
the classroom,” she said.

The House GOP education bill also follows similar bills passed at the
state level over education issues, especially those signed into law by
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The pair, who are considered potential 2024 Republican presidential
frontrunners, have fought against critical race theory and diversity,
equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Comments:

Rick Martin
11 hours ago

You have two choices. A decent place for 98% of children to learn and grow
in a safe and proper environment for young people with parental oversight
of what will be exposed to

OR

a place with "diversity"rules set by the 2% , reading material authorized
by Woke administrators , activities for youngsters such as drag queens
invited to lecture the children about the facts of life, etc.

Which environment do you want for your child?


--
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Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
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Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.