The right wing group working to qualify multiple initiatives to the 2024 Washington State Legislature turned in signatures for another one of their measures today in Tumwater at the Secretary of State’s Elections Annex.
Initiative 2081 — which, like all of Let’s Go Washington’s measures, is sponsored by State Representative and Republican State Party Chair Jim Walsh and funded with money from right wing millionaire Brian Heywood — is an attempt to bring the Republican Party’s national culture wars push to the November 2024 Washington State ballot. Ostensibly, the initiative is about ensuring parents have the right to know what’s happening to their kids in public schools.
But the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction says much of the initiative is trying to re-state what’s already in Washington law — meaning, it won’t give parents much in the way of rights that they don’t already have.
The official ballot title and summary for I‑2081 are as follows:
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 2081 concerns parental rights relating to their children’s public school education.This measure would provide certain rights to parents and guardians of public-school children, including rights to review instructional materials, inspect records, receive certain notifications, and opt out of certain activities, like sexual-health education.
Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]
Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would allow parents and guardians of public-school children to review instructional materials and inspect student records, including health and disciplinary records, upon request. It would require public schools to provide parents and guardians with certain notifications, including about medical services given and when students are taken off campus; access to calendars and certain policies; and written notice and opportunities to opt students out of comprehensive sexual-health education and answering certain surveys or assignments.
Some provisions in the initiative could have the potential to nix Human Rights Commission guidelines about student privacy — particularly in sensitive scenarios, which is reason alone in our view to reject this initiative. Suppose, for a example, that a student receives medical care that they do not want their parents to know about. Public schools should not be obligated by law to be inserted into the middle of disputes between young people and their parents about medical care.
The initiative does at least recognize that when abuse is being investigated, parents shouldn’t have unfettered access to their children’s records.
From subsection 3:
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, a public school shall not be required to release any records or information regarding a student’s medical or health records or mental health counseling records to a parent during the pendency of an investigation of child abuse or neglect conducted by any law enforcement agency or the department of children, youth, and families where the parent is the target of the investigation, unless the parent has obtained a court order.
This clause is too limited, however, to provide sufficient protections for youth.
Given that existing state law strikes a better balance than I‑2081, Washington would be better off without Initiative 2081. This is an instance where the old adage if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it applies. Many of the proponents of I‑2081 are focusing particularly on the scenario of parents being able to opt their children out of comprehensive sexual health education — but they already have that right under existing law, a law the right wing forced a statewide public vote on three years ago, which Washingtonians voted handily to uphold.
From the OSPI’s CSHE (comprehensive sexual health education) page:
Parent/Guardian Notification and Materials
Letters, Notifications, Waivers and FAQs
Parents and guardians must be notified at least one month in advance of planned instruction, must be able to review all CSHE instructional materials, and must be given the opportunity to opt their child out of CSHE instruction.
This information is being omitted from materials promoting I‑2081.
The Washington State Catholic Conference’s I‑2081 page, for example, which our team reviewed, neglects to explicitly state that parents already have this right, implying instead that I‑2081 would create it. The only language that nods to existing law is the word “reiterates” in this sentence: “It also reiterates or establishes numerous parents’ rights within the public school system.”
NPI’s observers in Tumwater saw a heavy “Moms for Liberty” presence at the turn-in. “Moms for Liberty” is an extreme right wing group that campaigns for book bans and against efforts to make schools more inclusive and curriculum more beneficial to students. The Southern Poverty Law Center had this to say about the group in its Year in Hate and Extremism report for 2022:
Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of “parents’ rights” groups. These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools. But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.
At the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group with vast connections to the GOP that this year the SPLC designated as an extremist group. They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, “We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.” The group hijacks meetings, preventing officials and parents from conducting their normal proceedings.
“I can be sitting in a meeting minding my own business, and they turn around and scream at me that I am a commie and teachers want to see all kids fail,” a teacher’s union president in Brevard County, Florida, explained to a Washington Post reporter.
The other five measures Let’s Go Washington is working on for 2024 are:
Signatures for Initiative 2117 were submitted on Tuesday, November 21st; our recap of that turn-in can be read here. The next measure Heywood and Walsh plan to submit signatures for is reportedly Initiative 2113, which would roll back restrictions on police pursuits that are making our communities safer.
NPI urges a no vote on all of the aforementioned initiatives, including I‑2081, and will be working to ensure that they get the vigorous opposition they deserve.
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