Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign a bill on Monday that outlines the rights of parents if they object to the curriculum at public schools.
The bill was passed by the Peach State’s Senate on Friday and outlines the rights of parents to review classroom materials, opt their children out of sex education, access all records related to their child, and prevent the creation of photos, videos, and voice recordings of their children, except for security purposes.
“Parents have a right to be actively involved in their child’s learning experience,” Kemp, a Republican, said in a tweet after the bill passed the Senate. “This bill will ensure transparency in education by promoting a partnership between parents [and] educators.”
The law additionally mandates that school boards must create procedures for parents to object to what’s taught in the classroom. Opponents of the bill are concerned it will create tension between parents and educators.
A related Georgia House bill was passed by the Senate recently, but it is headed back to the House for approval of minor changes before landing on Kemp’s desk.
House Bill 1084, called the “Protect Students First Act,” bans the teachings of nine topics considered “divisive,” including critical race theory, which teaches students that the United States is systemically and fundamentally racist. It also bans teaching that one race is superior to another.
It also adds that no student should feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of his or her race.”
Those in favor of the bill said it is still important to paint a full picture of U.S. history.
“We can teach U.S. history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, without dividing children along racial lines,” Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller said Friday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We must teach patriotism and that America is good. Though not perfect, America is good.”
Similar bills have been proposed in other Republican-led states across the nation.
