GEorgia Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign a bill Monday outlining the rights of parents when they object to the public school curriculum.
Passed by the Peach State Senate on Friday, the law outlines the rights of parents to review school materials, opt their children out of sex education, access all records about their child, and prevent the creation of photos, videos, and voice recordings of their children, except for security reasons.
“Parents have the right to actively participate in their child’s learning experience,” Kemp, a Republican, said in a tweet after the law passed the Senate. “This law will ensure transparency in education by encouraging partnership between parents [and] Pedagogues.”
The law also requires school boards to establish procedures by which parents can object to what is being taught in the classroom. Opponents of the bill fear tensions between parents and educators.
A related Georgia House bill was recently passed by the Senate, but it will be sent back to the House for approval of minor amendments before landing on Kemp’s desk.
House Bill 1084, called the “Protect Students First Act,” bans the teaching of nine subjects considered “divisive,” including critical race theory, which teaches students that the United States is systemically and fundamentally racist. It also forbids teaching that one race is superior to another.
It also adds that no student should feel “discomfort, guilt, fear, or any other form of psychological distress” because of his or her race.
Proponents of the bill said it’s still important to paint a complete picture of US history.
“We can teach US history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, without racially dividing children,” Senate Pro Tempore President Butch Miller said Friday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We must teach patriotism and that America is good. While not perfect, America is good.”
Similar bills have been proposed in other Republican-run states across the country.