Republican candidate for governor Doug Mastriano wants to introduce legislation that prohibits teaching of certain principles in schools and to punish those who do.
The state senator from Franklin County says in a co-sponsorship memoranda that “I will be introducing legislation to prohibit sexually explicit, obscene, and racist principles from being introduced, taught or discussed in the school setting. My legislation would further impose penalties for Administration staff, teachers, volunteers, or contractors who engage, encourage, promote, disseminate, or imply sexually explicit or racist concepts.”
Mastriano’s yet-to-be-written bill aims to put on the books what a rising number of advocacy organizations are trying to accomplish.
According to Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, the “groups pressure schools and districts to circumvent established guidelines for determining what books should be used in curricula or available in school libraries. They use the rhetoric of parental rights to trump the expertise of educators and librarians, while notably ignoring the differing views of other parents and students.”
In the memoranda, Mastriano wrote, “We have heard from parents, teachers and students expressing their concerns with racist concepts, conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity, and sexually explicit content within the school settings. Parents have voiced frustration with overly intrusive surveys distributed to students without parental knowledge. Parents have a fundamental right to decide what their child should be exposed to and what is age appropriate.
“Schools should be a place for engaging in academic discussions and creating citizens capable of self-governance. They are not the place to engage in politically divisive concepts that impart personal beliefs on impressionable young minds.”
A question arises, though – where are the schools in Pennsylvania where this is happening?
According to Dr. Elizabeth J. Meyer, associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado, writing in Psychology Today, there is limited evidence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) being taught in public K-12 schools (NEPC 2021). She also notes that there is a great deal of misunderstanding and misrepresentation as to what CRT actually is.
Moms for Liberty, a rapidly growing right-wing parent group that has pushed for book bans and against equity initiatives in schools nationwide over the last year, is now asking school board candidates to sign a pledge to uphold parental rights if elected, according to Education Week.
“I pledge to honor the fundamental rights of parents including, but not limited to the right to direct the education, medical care, and moral upbringing of their children,” the pledge for school board candidates reads. “I pledge to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision-making, increase transparency, defend against government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government.”
Speaking to a group in Warminster last Saturday, Mastriano said “that on Day 1, the sexualization of our kids, pole dancing and all this other crap that is going on will be forbidden in our schools. All the graphic, pornographic books that are in elementary schools will be pulled out. On day 1 and done, critical race theory will be out the window.”
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11 Responses
There have been transgendered poll dancing in schools unfortunately. I have seen the add. It’s sick. Unfortunately I can’t post it here to show you but it’s true.
Ahh… The old, “I’ve seen it but can’t produce the evidence defense,” classic propaganda technique. I’ve worked in education for 16 years in Pennsylvania and have never seen any of this salacious stuff that Mastriano and the rest of the Re-Trump-licans spread in the hopes of defending public education to push for a voucher or private school system that makes the wealthy wealthier.
If Il Duce Mastriano gets his way then the Bible will have to be banned from schools as it has plenty of sexual content, for example Onan “ spilling his seed” on the ground rather than consummating coitus with his wife. As for gay themes there is the story of King Saul’s son Jonathan kissing David until David became sexually aroused. And in Numbers 5:27-28 the infallible holy word of God approves abortion — through the use of an abortifacient no less. It is commonplace that moralistic conservatives are often hypocrites but the real danger to freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience upon which it is based, is that they are also tyrants determined to impose their will on others by force. This is the major reason the coming election is vital to preserving our democracy .
Point well taken but to call him “il duce” for respecting parent’s rights
is a little too much
I mean this seriously. Where does the pole dancing supposed to be happening? Are school administrators pole dancing? Who is doing the pole dancing? This is wacky. Does anyone really believe there is pole dancing school administrators and it has never been reported on?
There have been transgendered poll dancing in schools unfortunately. I have seen the add. It’s sick. Unfortunately I can’t post it here to show you but it’s true.
The Republicans are consummate experts at inventing pointless wedge issues. It’s just remarkable that they manage to do it time and time again with impunity.
The question that needs to be asked is, WHO gets to decide what is appropriate and what is not.
Ding Dong Dougie Dog Whistle is at it again.
Exactly. There is neither a foundation for his claims nor a plan to address these “issues”. It’s just red meat for then intellectually disengaged (which kind of characterizes the bulk of his PA Senate constituents). Very sad.
So we are going to spend all our time ferreting out naughty ideas or what someone thinks is a naughty idea and ignore preparing our young with an education that allows them to compete in a global economy?