ATLANTA (LifeSiteNews) – Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian P. Kemp is set to sign a bill protecting the rights of parents in the state to have a say in their child’s education, including the freedom to opt their child out of sex education classes.
The Georgia Senate passed bill HB 1178, also known as the Parent’s Bill of Rights, with 31 votes to 22 on April 1, sending the legislation to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
The state House passed the bill last month by 98 votes to 68.
The Parent’s Bill of Rights affirms that it is “a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their minor children,” including the “right to direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training of his or her minor child” and the ability “to review all instructional materials intended for use in the classroom of his or her minor child.”
The legislation further requires schools to establish procedures “for a parent to review records relating to his or her minor child” as well as “to learn about his or her minor child’s courses of study, including, but not limited to, parental access to instructional materials intended for use in the classroom.”
Provisions must also be made for parents to object to the use of certain materials for instruction in class and for a parent to be able to “withdraw his or her minor child from the school’s prescribed course of study in sex education.”
Kemp celebrated the passing of the bill in an April 1 tweet, supporting a parent’s right to be “actively involved” in their child’s education by increasing “transparency in education.”
I applaud the House & Senate for passing HB1178 to establish a Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Parents have a right to be actively involved in their child’s learning experience. This bill will ensure transparency in education by promoting a partnership between parents & educators. https://t.co/jWp2pnbHqC
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 1, 2022
After the governor’s office announced the bill’s introduction in February, House sponsor Rep. Josh Bonner (R) said that since “[p]arents have the primary responsibility for educating their children,” the legislation will “provide needed transparency and access for parents as they partner with teachers to achieve the best possible outcomes.”
The success of the Parent’s Bill of Rights follows that of the “Protect Students First Act” in the Georgia Senate, which limits discussions in kindergarten through twelfth grade classrooms on nine key topics considered “divisive.”
HB 1084 passed the Senate floor with 32 votes in favor and 21 against and must now be approved by the House, after minor changes were made to the document, before being sent to Kemp to be signed into law.
The governor is expected to give his assent to the bill, having supported the removal of “divisive ideologies like critical race theory” from school curricula in his January State of the State speech.
The bill expressly forbids the promulgation of racially “divisive concepts” in schools, including critical race theory, the view that “one race is inherently superior to another race,” and that the “United States of America is fundamentally racist.”
The legislation also prohibits “race scapegoating or race stereotyping,” such as claiming that “an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, bears individual responsibility for actions committed in the past by other individuals of the same race.”
People are also not to be made to feel “anguish, guilt, or any other form of psychological distress” on account of their racial background.
Georgia Senate president pro tempore Butch Miller said that schools “can teach U.S. history, the good, the bad and the ugly, without dividing children along racial lines,” adding that “[we] must teach patriotism and that America is good. Though not perfect, America is good.”
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education Bill” last month, protecting young children from LGBT indoctrination between kindergarten and third grade in Florida schools.
Despite blowback from militant homosexual advocacy groups and the Disney corporation, DeSantis said that protecting students from dangerous sexual and gender ideologies is paramount.
“I don’t care what corporate media outlets say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big corporations say, here I stand,” the governor said. “I’m not backing down.”