Minnesota Senate GOP introduce bills requiring teachers to share curriculum with parents

Minnesota Senate Republicans unveiled a slate of measures Monday that would require teachers to share their curriculum with parents and allow parents to seek alternative instruction or leave the school altogether if they don't like what they see.

"This package aims to empower parents in their children's education," said Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids. "For far too long, Democrats have treated children as mere subjects of the state. They believe children belong to the system and not to their parents, and we believe this is wrong."

Dubbed the "Minnesota Parents' Bill of Rights," the package includes bills that would require districts and teachers to provide a range of information to parents, including syllabus details. Senate Republicans are also planning to bring back a bill introduced last session that would establish education savings accounts that could be used to cover costs including private school tuition.

Education Minnesota, which represents nearly 90,000 educators statewide, took aim at the Senate GOP plan and the burden it would place on teachers.

"Unfortunately, certain politicians seem more interested in following the lead of the national big-money groups' plans to inflame division about what's taught about race and gender than in presenting coherent policies to engage parents in their local schools," President Denise Specht said in a statement.

The idea of "parental rights" is gaining traction with Republicans nationally, who see it as a winning political strategy to take back state legislative chambers and win governor races across the country.

Last fall, Republican Glenn Youngkin successfully used the idea of more parental control as a wedge issue in the race for governor of Virginia, capitalizing on fears about more racially inclusive curriculums in classrooms and frustrations from parents around school during the pandemic.

In Wisconsin — where Republicans have also introduced legislation that would give parents the right to review instructional materials — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill earlier this month that would have prohibited public K-12 schools from teaching students and training staff on concepts such as systemic racism and implicit bias.

Stephanie Rivera, national press secretary for the Republican State Leadership Committee, which is pushing for GOP victories in statehouses across the country, called the proposals from Minnesota Senate Republicans "common-sense policies."

"Minnesota Republicans know that parents matter and are committed to enacting policies that give parents a greater voice in their children's educations," she said in a statement.

Two senators who were part of the Senate GOP rollout on Monday — Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, and Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake — are both seeking their party's nomination to take on DFL Gov. Tim Walz in the fall. That fact was quickly pointed out and criticized by Kendall Qualls, another Republican in the governor's race.

"It appears coincidental that two individuals running for higher office … suddenly are willing to put their political names on the line to endorse a pivotal bill for parents," Qualls said in a statement.

Republicans in the Senate also plan to focus on test scores, reading skills and graduation preparation this session. Democrats want to spend a portion of the estimated $7.7 billion surplus on classrooms, early-childhood education and support for teachers and school staff.

"House Democrats have consistently partnered with parents and families, have always pushed to fully fund our public schools and will continue to do so to deliver the great education and services Minnesota students deserve — free of political agendas," House Education Finance Chair Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, said in a statement.

On Monday, Gazelka noted that state law already allows parents to provide alternative instruction if they object to what their child's school is teaching. Gazelka sponsored a bill that would expand the existing statute, requiring districts to notify parents of the policy at the beginning of each school year.

"Typically, it's not going to be about math or science that parents are going to want to know what's going on," he said. "It's going to be social studies standards; it's going to be what books are read in English class; what are they teaching in sex education? Parents want to be involved in that process, and we should let them have those conversations."

Former Becker School Board Member Betsy Armstrong cited social studies — and curriculum stemming from the New York Times' 1619 Project — when she testified in support of Gazelka's bill before the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee on Monday afternoon. The committee went on to approve that bill and three others.

An early version of one bill said that districts and schools could face legal action if they didn't comply, though that language was removed in committee Monday afternoon.

"Parents want to know what is actually in those materials," Armstrong said. "The news is replete with concerns of parents that critical race theory especially, and questionable gender diversity policies, have crept into the curriculum."

Education Committee Chair Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, is the lead sponsor of one of the four bills that cleared his committee. It would allow parents to testify before a school board without publicly disclosing their address or other contact information.

The four senators offered few specifics at Monday's news conference about what prompted the Parents' Bill of Rights and how it would work in practice. If these bills become law, Chamberlain said, parents will get more details from their schools.

"You can talk about weeds and details all day — you can go down that rabbit hole," he said. "But ultimately the whole idea here is to say [that] we want partnership between parents and educators, we want it to be productive and fruitful, for the ultimate benefit of the children."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.