5 Things You Should Know About Kim Reynolds’ Education Bill

An amended version of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ education bill continues to work its way through the Iowa Legislature after it advanced out of an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday. 

Rep. Skyler Wheeler (R-Hull), who chaired the subcommittee, said there will be more amendments to the bill but he did not want to discuss them publicly yet.

While most of the language of SF 496 remains as Reynolds’ office presented it, the Iowa Senate amended a few things including a provision that makes book banning in school libraries more straightforward rather than the piecemeal approach that included a statewide list of banned books. The Senate also removed a provision that fined schools up to $5,000 for violating what Reynolds defined as “parental rights.”

Reynolds’ education bill covers a lot of ground, but here are five components of it to keep in mind should it become law:

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Book banning

The original version of the bill required schools to notify the Iowa Department of Education when a school district’s board of directors has removed a book from a classroom, school library, or any school property.

In the new version, school libraries are only allowed to have “age-appropriate” books—although reasonable people would argue this was already the standard—by Jan.1, 2024. “Age appropriate” is defined as any book that does not “include any material with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” that is listed under Iowa Code Section 702.17.

However, the Reynolds/GOP “age appropriate” standard does not include books with violent acts in them, and the strict restrictions would prohibit school libraries from having a number of classic books that aren’t even about sex or sexual identity, but make reference to it. Sen. Claire Celsi (D-West Des Moines) noted during the Senate debate this provision would ban “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the works of Judy Blume.

Employees found in violation of this provision risk losing their teaching license.

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Forced outing

If any school employee—from the bus driver to the lunch lady—”reasonably believes” that a child has expressed a gender identity different from the one that is on their birth certificate they must notify the child’s parent.

If the school thinks notifying that child’s parents about them supposedly exhibiting a different gender identity would put them in harm’s way, then the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services would be notified instead. 

This section also prohibits schools from using different nicknames or pronouns for a child if it differs from what is on existing school records unless the school has signed parental permission.

Cost

The Senate tweaked the instructional materials section of this bill after the heavy price tag came out. Reynolds’ original version could have cost Iowa public schools as much as $62.3 million over a five-day period, according to a fiscal note from the nonpartisan Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA).

This section requires that all “printed or electronic textbooks and related core materials that are written and published primarily for use in elementary school and secondary school instruction and are required by a state educational agency or local educational agency for use by students in the student’s classes by the teacher of record.”

It’s slightly scaled down from what Reynolds’ sought—the initial bill wanted schools to create a database with every single piece of educational material that could be used in class multiple times a year—but it will still require a lot of additional work for teachers.

New cost estimates aren’t available yet.

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Gender identity/sexual orientation

Nicknamed “don’t say gay/don’t say trans” by opponents, this section of the bill initially prevented any discussion of gender identity/sexual orientation in grades K-3, but the amended version increases that restriction to sixth grade.

It also prevents teaching “sexual activity” to students in those grades, which is not happening and is already a crime. As Sen. Herman Quirmbach (D-Ames) has noted many times this session, no one is teaching children the intricacies of sexual intercourse and, if they did, they would be in jail. 

LGBTQ Iowans and advocates have said this provision is an attempt to erase LGBTQ people. Questions have also been raised if a teacher would be allowed to answer a question students may ask if they notice a classmate has two parents of the same gender, or if a teacher would be able to answer questions from a student who is being sexually abused at home and tries to talk to them about it.

Removes AIDs and HPV education

School sexual education curriculum would remove instruction about AIDS and/or the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the associated vaccine, which can actually prevent some forms of cancer.

While no clear explanation has been given on why the specific mention of AIDs and HPV would be removed, attacks on the HPV vaccine are centered on Merck being the only manufacturer of the vaccine. The stated argument is that talking about the vaccine, which again can prevent some cancers, gives Merck free advertising, but it really adheres to the growing anti-vaccine movement.

The Centers for Disease and Control recommends the HPV vaccine for everyone through age 26, but people under age 15 can take it in two doses whereas those who take it past age 15 need three doses.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the HPV vaccine “can prevent most cases of cervical cancer if the vaccine is given before girls or women are exposed to the virus. This vaccine can also prevent vaginal and vulvar cancer. In addition, the vaccine can prevent genital warts, anal cancers, and mouth, throat, head and neck cancers in women and men.”

by Ty Rushing
03/29/23

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