Parents’ Bill of Rights passes GOP-led House, triggering fear of book bans and LGBTQ restrictions in schools

The GOP-led house on Friday voted to advance controversial legislation aimed at providing parents with more information and control over what is being taught in public school classrooms.

The Parents’ Bill of Rights act narrowly passed in a vote of 213-208, with just five republicans — most of them members of the House Freedom Caucus — voting against it. The legislation is headed next to the Senate for consideration, though it’s unlikely it will pass the Democratic-led chamber.

Critics of the bill fear it will politicize classrooms and further advance the far-right movement, which has in recent months triggered book bans and restrictions aimed at transgender students in a number of schools across the country. It would require schools to publish curricula in advance as well as provide a list of books kept in their libraries.

The legislation also affirms parents’ rights to address school boards — about anything from budgets to lesson plans — and receive information about violent activity in their child’s school.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., also successfully pushed for an amendment that would force schools to report when transgender girls join girls’ athletics teams and disclose whether trans girls are allowed to use girls’ restrooms or locker rooms. It would also require elementary and middle school officials to obtain parents’ consent before changing a student’s gender designation, pronouns or name.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed the bill would meet “a dead end,” declaring it is an example that the GOP has been overrun by “hard right MAGA ideologues.”

Democrats across chambers echoed the sentiment and have dubbed the legislation the “Politics over Parents Act.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., meanwhile touted the vote Friday as a victory, proclaiming it is evidence that the Republican Party is “keeping our promise, our commitment to America, that parents will have a say in their kids’ education.”

Parents’ desire for more control in public school classrooms was highlighted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they balked at remote learning, and then mask and vaccine mandates after students returned to their classes.

Republicans have since tapped into some of those frustrations, many of them making parents’ rights in schools a key part of their platforms during the midterm elections.

With News Wire Services