NC’s ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ treats contrived problems but creates real damage | Opinion

In their competition to pass the least needed and most flawed legislation, North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers may have a winner in Senate Bill 49, the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

It should be called the Bill of Wrongs.

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill on Wednesday, but Republicans are unlikely to let this masterpiece go away. They’ll seek to override Cooper’s veto.

Opponents of the bill refer to it as North Carolina’s version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It bars instruction about gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality before Fifth Grade and requires that parents be notified about a child’s request for a name or pronoun change.

Instances of children identifying with another gender are rare and cases in which the parents would not be aware are rarer still. Meanwhile, the K-4 curriculum already doesn’t include instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, though some children’s books used in schools refer to same-sex marriage. Indeed, most of the “rights” enumerated in the bill already exist under state and federal law.

Republicans say the bill’s purpose is “messaging.” It’s intended to appeal to conservatives’ notion that teachers are indoctrinating young children and hiding information from parents when children struggle with their sexual or gender identity. In addressing contrived problems, the bill would create real damage by undermining a child’s willingness to confide in teachers.

Requiring teachers – and school nurses and counselors – to report to parents when a child reveals a personal concern could compound an abused or neglected child’s problems at home. The bill includes an exception for reporting child abuse, but as a practical matter the bill discourages the kind of communication that could protect children who are at risk.

State Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat and a former Parent Teacher Association leader, said during a K-12 Education Committee hearing on the bill, “We have discussed in this committee so many times about how we’re all concerned with the mental health of our students. This is going to basically discourage them from disclosing that need for help.”

Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators and a former elementary school teacher, said in as a statement that teachers will resist this effort to pit teachers against parents. “We know that most parents trust their child’s teachers and we will not allow legislation to drive wedges between us,” she said.

Also notable about this bill is its shoddy construction. The bill allows parents who are unhappy with a school’s response to their complaints about certain school “procedures or practices” to request from the State Board of Education a “parental concern hearing.” An independent attorney would act as the hearing officer with the school paying the attorney’s fee.

The state Board of Education was not consulted about its role under this proposed law. The bill provides no power for the board to enforce rulings from the hearings. And it provides schools with no extra funding to pay for an attorney at these hearings.

The bill is also flawed its its unequal treatment of schools. It would impose new limitations and disclosure requirements on public schools at a time when Republican lawmakers want to vastly expand funding for Opportunity Scholarships. The expansion would by 2032 make more than $500 million a year available to all private schools with virtually no accountability requirements.

State Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, said during a hearing, “I see we give all this taxpayer money we’re offering to private schools when they have little, if any, educational mandates. But we’re burdening the public schools, taking away principals and teachers from the job of teaching to make sure they’re following all these administrative responsibilities.”

Senate Bill 49, one of many such parents’ rights bills being offered by conservative lawmakers around the nation, is really about some parents trying to impose their views on other parents at the expense of vulnerable kids. It’s a bad bill, unnecessarily burdensome with undefined enforcement and potentially cruel consequences for children seeking to confide in educators and counselors.

Cooper was right to reject this bill of wrongs. His veto should stand.

This story was originally published July 7, 2023 at 7:08 AM with the headline "NC’s ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ treats contrived problems but creates real damage | Opinion."