Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed what he calls a parental rights bill that would require written permission from a parent when a child asks to change the name or pronoun they use at school as part of a package he says is aimed at broadening the conversation around public education.
The Republican also proposed cash payments for teachers as a way to address recruitment and retention concerns, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The Democratic chair of the Senate Education Committee and members of the House’s largely Democratic minority said the parental rights measure is divisive and a distraction from their priorities: school funding and finding ways to attract and keep teachers. The bill in the Senate was not referred to the education committee.
Other elements of Dunleavy’s bill include prohibiting teaching sex education before fourth grade, requiring written parental permission for children to participate in sex education after fourth grade and requiring policies by local districts that would have children use locker rooms and restrooms according to their “biological sex” or provide for single-occupant facilities.
“There should never be a case where a parent sends their kid to school, and the child comes back having discussions about things they learned in school that may be a sensitive issue or an affront to a parent’s values,” Dunleavy told a news conference Tuesday in Anchorage.
“Yes, we have a teacher recruitment and retention problem, but we have a bus driver recruitment and retention problem, we have a superintendent recruitment and retention problem. Principals, administrators, clerical, classroom aides, paraprofessionals, nutrition specialists,” he said. He is advocating for an increase in the school funding formula.
Dunleavy is proposing bonuses ranging from $5,000 per teacher for the state’s urban districts to $15,000 for the state’s most rural districts, which would be distributed once a year, at the end of the coming three school years. Dunleavy said the goal would be to study the impacts of the bonuses at the end of that period.
The post Alaska governor proposes limits on sex education, teacher bonuses appeared first on Fox News.
