Iowa Teachers Calling for "Back to Basics" in Iowa Education
Following a meeting at the Capitol with legislators and teachers from all across Iowa, Representative Andrews made the following Facebook post on Monday which garnered nearly 200 comments and more than a little bit of debate,
"Despite the media narratives they were encouraged by our legislation"
You can listen to our interview with Representative Andrews on This Week At The Capitol HERE.
We just received an email from District 46 Representative Dan Gehlbach
This week some members of the House Republican caucus got to hear first-hand accounts from teachers on what they are experiencing in their classrooms. It was a very enlightening and productive discussion. These conversations and many more will help guide us to craft legislation that will continue to put parents in the driver’s seat on their children’s education.
Representative Gehlbach goes on to lay out the details of HF 8
House File 8 – Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation Curriculum
This week, the House Education committee, which I am a member of, passed House File 8 through committee. This bill prohibits any classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in K-6th grade. It also prohibits instruction on these topics at any age that is not age appropriate. We send our kids to school to learn subjects like reading, writing, math and science. This bill will allow teachers to use their classroom time on those topics and leave discussions on social issues to the parents. Teachers should teach and parents should parent.
This bill is often misconstrued and accused of having consequences that are not actually in the bill. To help ensure that you understand, here is an explainer of what the bill does and does not do.
What HF does…
Prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6th grade.
Prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation in a manner that is not age appropriate in any grade.
Allows teachers to stick to curriculum on school subjects like reading, writing, math and science, while leaving the responsibility to discuss social issues to the parents.
What HF 8 does NOT do…
This bill does not ban sex education. State guidelines on sexual education curriculum remain in code and this bill does not change or affect those guidelines.
This bill does not stop any instruction providing information to students to prevent sexual abuse. Schools can provide students with necessary information such as safe touches vs unsafe touches without getting into gender identity and sexual orientation.
This bill does not ban books that contain LGBTQ characters.
This bill does not prevent a teacher in a same sex marriage from talking about or displaying photos of their spouse. Again, this bill addresses curriculum.
This bill does not prevent students from discussing these topics themselves.
This bill does not allow for bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity. All current bullying policies apply.
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