A wide-ranging education bill released in the North Carolina legislature would make it easier for parents to get school superintendents fired and for students to change schools, while also revoking library cards for children if they don't have a parent's written permission.
This new version of Senate Bill 90, released late Tuesday, draws from a number of ideas Republican lawmakers have already considered, and in some cases passed, this legislative session. But there are new sections, too. In all the bill proposes dozens of changes pitched as ways to give parents more control over their children's education.
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The bill, like another measure the governor has already vetoed, would require educators to tell parents if a child questions their gender and asks to go by different pronouns. It lays out a new process for picking textbooks and library books. It would repeal a current law that allows physicians to treat minors for mental health issues without telling their parents, and it would create a new group, largely appointed by the General Assembly's majority, to plan the curriculum for public schools statewide.
The bill may also allow charter schools to require that female students wear skirts, which has been the subject of a federal lawsuit.
The bill would also allow parents to sue school district superintendents in court for violating their “fundamental right to parent” their child. That fundamental right is defined only as the right to direct their child’s “upbringing, education, health care and mental health.” It does not spell out what would be considered a violation of their right to direct those things.
If five parents win their cases, the superintendent would have to be fired or lose a portion of their salary.
Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, said that’s appropriate “if they’re not paying attention and not dealing with the people they need to deal with when they have bad actors.”
Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake, called the proposed bill "a license for book banning committees to run rampant" and for far-right groups to get school superintendents fired.
Superintendent tenure is shortening and turnover is rising in North Carolina and beyond, with experts saying politics are partly to blame.
The measure was initially scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday in the House Education Committee, but it was pulled from the calendar. Torbett, the committee co-chair, said lawmakers just needed more time to read and understand the bill.
Lawmakers have said they hope to wrap this legislative session by August, so the proposal's fate is in doubt, but policy often moves quickly at the General Assembly. Disagreements between House and Senate leadership have already extended the session as top lawmakers fight over details in the state budget.
Katherine Joyce, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators, said lawmakers should pause for thorough vetting of the bill.
“At first glance, its focus appears to be promoting parents’ rights in education, which most superintendents, principals, and other school leaders value and often encourage,” Joyce said. She said members have already reached out to her to say the bill “would create multiple logistical concerns for daily school operations, resulting in more intensive state micro-management and taking authority away from locally elected boards of education.”
Tamika Walker-Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, called the bill "misplaced priorities," along with another bill to expand private school voucher funding by hundreds of millions of dollars, as schools struggle with staffing shortages.
"As the General Assembly is still considering an unprecedented expansion of private school vouchers through taxpayer dollars with no oversight or regulation of those funds, they are simultaneously introducing legislation that would impose unfunded mandates and extreme restrictions on our public schools," Walker-Kelly said in a statement. "While titled the Children’s Law, SB 90 strips students of the freedom to learn by imposing restrictions on minors visiting libraries, students' participation in extracurricular activities, or to just be called by their preferred name at school."
Parents and educators should be partners, Walker-Kelly said, but the bill is divisive and provides too much power to "just a handful of parents."
Lawmakers are also considering a number of other key education proposals as the legislative session wanes, including a major funding expansion for the state's private school vouchers program and a state budget that will determine raises for teachers and other school employees. House Democratic Leader Robert Reives, D-Chatham, said Republican proposals on education this session amount to an "all-out assault on public education."
The new proposed bill text is online, as is a summary of the measure.
The bill seeks to:
Make it easier for students to change schools, within their school district or in another school district, by limiting the reasons a local school board could deny a transfer request. Students who do transfer wouldn’t be guaranteed transportation to and from school.
Create a new committee, with a majority appointed by General Assembly leadership, to work up a new standard course of study for North Carolina public schools. The State Board of Education would get to approve that course in an up or down vote — no changes allowed. If the board rejects the plan twice, the board would write its own course of study, subject to review by the General Assembly.
Set a new process for picking library books and restrict children's access to books considered too adult, which libraries could keep in age-restricted areas open only to people 18 or older.
Make school boards hold weigh book challenges at public meetings when a book has received 11 or more letters of objection are received stating that library books violate rules. The letters would not need to come from parents of students in that school.
Bar library books from containing any descriptions of sexual acts, in any context. Book fairs could not include books that violate these rules, requiring review of every book before it is sold a a book fair.
Require a community library advisory team at every school system or charter school, directed by the State Board of Education, that investigates book challenges.
Require written parental consent before a minor gets a library card and cancel existing library cards if a child doesn't have permission. Parents would also have access to a list of of materials their child checks out. The bill would also make it easier to prosecute public school and library officials for disseminating material harmful to children.
Repeal a current law that allows physicians to treat minors for mental health issues without telling their parents. Doctors would have to inform parents unless they believe the child was abused or neglected.
Require licensed school employees to inform parents when a student is suicidal or transgender, unless an employee believed the child was being abused or neglected or that disclosure would result in abuse or neglect. If abuse or neglect is feared, the licensed employee would have to report the family to county social services.
Rework sex and health education in public schools, forbidding teaching fourth- and fifth-graders about gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality. They would be taught about puberty and, in fifth grade, how the male and female reproductive systems work. Parents would have to opt in before their student takes the class. The bill also takes away schools’ abilities to expand their health curricula beyond what is explicitly required by state law. State law does not require teaching about gender identity, sexual orientation or consent to sexual activity.
Require schools to send parents a detailed description of reproductive health programming and a list of all written and audio materials that will be used to teach it.
Require school boards to hold public hearings, providing parents written notices of them, any time they plan to make any changes to health-and-safety programming.
Give charter schools, which receive public funding but don't have to meet all the regulations for traditional public schools, more power to enforce dress codes and other rules by codifying that they are not state actors, but private non-profits with state funding. The change is in response to a federal lawsuit over a North Carolina charter school's requirement that female students wear skirts, thought the bill's language would likely have broader impact. The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the school couldn't require skirts, and the school has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Parents must apply to charter schools before a student can attend.