House Republicans advanced a measure that would restrict federal funding for schools unless they adopt policies requiring teachers to get parental consent before changing a student’s gender designation, pronouns or preferred name.
Lawmakers approved the bill in a 217-198 vote, advancing the measure through a mostly party-line vote with eight Democrats joining all Republicans to back the bill. All four members of Utah’s delegation voted in favor, including Rep. Burgess Owens, who was a main co-sponsor of the bill.
“There are only two sexes: male and female,” Owens said in a floor speech ahead of the vote. “Sex is a biological fact, not an ideological whim. Yet across the country, school districts are actively pushing radical gender ideology on children and, in some cases, facilitating social transitions without parental knowledge or consent.”
The Parental Rights Over The Education and Care of Their Kids Act, or the PROTECT Kids Act, would require any school that receives funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to adhere to the consent policies. It would extend that rule to whenever a student wants to change his or her gender marker, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form.
It would also include sex-based accommodations, which the bill said would apply to locker rooms or bathrooms. The restrictions would apply to both elementary and middle schools.
Those provisions were spearheaded by Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., who argued parents were losing control over their children because “schools are keeping parents in the dark.”
“Families deserve honesty, not secrecy — especially when it comes to issues like gender identity. Simply put, parents should never be the last to know — that’s not political, it’s common sense,” Walberg, who sits as the chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, political and ideological agendas are being pushed through curriculum without parents’ knowledge or consent, sidelining the very people responsible for raising these children.”
The bill also includes portions of Owens’ Say No to Indoctrination Act that was introduced last year, which would prohibit schools that receive federal funding from teaching concepts related to gender ideology.
“Parents, not school administrators, have the ultimate right to make decisions about their children’s upbringing,” Owens said. “The government should not be funding or pushing these radical ideologies on our children, this bill ensures that will be the case.”
Democrats specifically pushed back on that provision, arguing it would amount to schools banning any discussion on transgender people or “even discuss the existence of transgender people.”
“It is well established in statute that states and districts determine what their curriculum is without interference from the federal government,” Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said on the House floor. “This bill takes away state and local control of curriculum on education, the very thing that the current administration claims they’re giving back to states by illegally dismantling the Department of Education.”