Washington Moms For America will be closely watching the proposed legislation and amendments presented by lawmakers during the 2023 legislative session. Officially, the session begins January 9, but some lawmakers have already begun pre-filing their bills. We will break them into bite sized chunks as they’re introduced to help you keep track of the ones that you care most about. This section will be all about bills pertaining to education and parents’ rights.
Last year, a bill attempting to lower the compulsory age for school attendance from eight years old to five was killed thanks to overwhelming opposition from thousands of Washingtonians. But, like usual, leftist lawmakers didn’t accept our final answer of “no,” and Democrat Senator Lisa Wellman has pre-filed an almost identical bill for this coming session. Senate bill 5020 seeks to lower the compulsory age for children to start attending school from eight years old to six years old. In the bill, it says the intention for this is to recognize “the importance that education has on the future opportunities of children.” While the bill also says that the legislature reaffirms its “commitment to allow home-based instruction to be less structured and more experiential than traditional classroom instruction,” one can’t help but wonder if an ulterior motive may be to push out the comprehensive sex ed (CSE)/critical race theory (CRT) as soon as they possibly can.
Washington Moms For America does not believe it is in the best interest of Washington communities to lower the compulsory age of school attendance and will stand against such legislation as currently written.
Several Republican lawmakers have introduced a series of bills aimed to bring back transparency into the classroom and empower parental involvement with their children’s education. Those bills are outlined below.
School boards across the state have realized the severe limitations of their decision making, thanks to the overreach of the person holding the position in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Between the aforementioned CSE/CRT and Covid testing/masking/jab mandates imposed or threatened upon students and staff alike, school boards have faced the brunt of parent anger over the past several years. So, it’s not a surprise that they would pressure the “primary duty” of OSPI to be legally reduced to “one of support, not supervision, and that school boards are vested with the final responsibility to set policies that serve their students,” according Senate bill 5029.
“Instead of allowing grassroots involvement to shape and enrich student educational experiences, the state has empowered the superintendent of public instruction to enforce strict regulatory compliance without consideration of local beliefs and values,” the bill reads. The intention of SB 5029 is to empower school boards to have more local authority and allow for more flexibility to meet the needs of individual communities. Washington Moms For America strongly supports a measure of this magnitude and believes that the bulk of authority should remain at the local level.
Senate bill 5008 seeks to require school districts to post all “core” instructional curricula and supplemental materials on its website within 14 days of adoption by the school boards, and 14 days prior to their implementation in the classroom. Washington Moms For America will support this bill.
Senate bill 5009 seeks to require districts to obtain parental approval before a student participates in CSE lessons. Due to the state passing the widely controversial inclusion of CSE in classrooms by the current school year, this bill intends to give parents “more control and choice over the sexual health education their child receives by having parents provide written approval before any planned instruction occurs.” The bill amends the law requiring CSE to every student to include that the school must have parental approval for the student to receive the CSE portion of the curriculum, rather than simply offering parents a chance to “opt out.” While CSE is still dangerous to children and Washington Moms For America would like to see it removed from classrooms completely, this bill, which requires that schools obtain written permission from parents first, beginning next school year (2023-2024), is a step in the right direction and Washington Moms For America will support it.
Finally, Senate bill 5024 outlines a parent’s bill of rights in regards to their children’s public education. The bill would require school districts to publicly post assessment test results for schools for reading, English, and mathematics. Additionally, the rights of parents in public schools would drastically grow, including by guaranteeing parents have access and information regarding classroom and school sponsored activities, any curricula used, and teachers and guest speakers. Further, school board meetings will have much more transparency, with the bill requiring more access to said meetings in person and via online and recording. Washington Moms For America would support this bill.
Over the last decade specifically, leftist lawmakers have taken way too much control of public education. Teachers’ unions have lobbied common sense and innocence away from classrooms, and now we have to work hard to get these back for our students. This is the first glimpse of what we’re looking to stand for in regards to parents’ rights and education during the 2023 session.