Education 2/22
- indivisiblecria
- Feb 21
- 5 min read
There was much going on this week in the legislature.
Last week, Friday, Feb. 20, was the first funnel day, meaning that bills not passed out of committee are dead, however, there are exceptions: tax, appropriation, and government oversight can be resurrected (unfortunately).
As always, thanks to Connie Ryan for her superb coverage of legislative issues and thanks to Sen. Bennett for her newsletter highlighting the good, bad, and yes, the ugly.
Urgent Action Item:
SF2201 (OPPOSE) CRITICAL
CRITICALLY IMPORTANT issue for our K-12 school districts.
This is the school funding bill that has passed the house where the SSA was increased from the Senate’s 1.75% to 2.00%. The Senate will now debate this. While this is an increase over the previous bill, the amount is tragically below the needed funding for our public school districts to function.
Please email as many members of the Senate as you can, it is crucial for our districts to have more funding. Senate (Try to send the emails individually even if the same message is sent to each)
This is on the calendar for debate in the Senate on Monday 2/23- No time to lose.
Both bills would allow a person with a valid permit to carry to have a gun in their vehicle in the driveways and parking lots of school grounds.
SF2263 casts a wide net on the topic of guns in vehicles in public spaces that also overlaps with HF621 in the area of school grounds. If you are curious, here are links to the lobbyist declaration pages for SF2263 and HF621.
Any legislation that allows for guns on school grounds only puts students and staff at risk.
Click on the bills for more details. These bills are eligible for debate in the House and Senate.
Education Bills:
HF884 (OPPOSE)
This is the bill that allows public schools to employ chaplains to provide services to students, see previous descriptions.
This is eligible for debate in the Senate although there has been no action on this bill. (no update this week **editors note: What is "Separation of Church and State" for 400?)
An Act relating to education, including by modifying provisions related to the protected speech and expression rights of students enrolled in school districts, charter school, and innovation zone schools and the duties of the department of education, and providing civil penalties.
While this bill respects the right of free speech, including prayer and discussion of religious ideas, it should not include proselytizing or trying to convert students who are considered a captive audience in schools.
This is eligible for consideration in both houses. House and Senate
HF2510 (OPPOSE) NEW-ish
This bill mandates specific curriculum requirements that public schools must include for social studies in grades one through twelve and educational programs of the regents universities. The legislature is overreaching by mandating specific curriculum requirements.
We apologize for missing this bill in previous reports.
The bill will be considered by the House.
SF2008 (SUPPORT) Funnel
The bill seeks establishing requirements related to nonpublic schools that receive tuition payments from the education savings account program.
The bill did not make it though funnel day.
HF845, SF510 (OPPOSE) Funnel
The bill calls for establishing rules to allow the teaching of Hebrew Scripture, the Old Testament, and New Testament.
The bill has met its demise with funnel day!
SF2066 (OPPOSE) Funnel
The bill would require an “opt in” rather than the current “opt out” from parents to allow the student to participate in classes on human growth and development.
The bill is out of subcommittee and in the Senate Education Committee
The bill has met its demise with funnel day!
Higher Education:
SF2405 (OPPOSE)
(Formerly HF2116/SF2174)
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are already prohibited in public schools and state universities, but this bill goes even further. It allows anyone, regardless of “standing”, to go to court and force an action against a district only because that person doesn’t like something happening in a district. This could cause a useless but detrimental financial burden for districts.
This is eligible for debate in the Senate.
(Formerly SF2063/HSB542)
An anti diversity, equity, and inclusion, and critical race theory prohibition. The board of regents is required to complete a review of all undergraduate course requirements and if related to the above, may eliminate those requirements.
Also, HF2487 authorizes the attorney general to conduct an investigation regarding a violation of current law prohibiting regents universities, community colleges, and state entities, which would include local governments, from engaging in certain practices regarding DEI.
These bills are eligible for debate in their respective chambers.
A bill that establishes required courses in American History and American Government for all undergraduate students. This bill continues to shift decisions on course requirements of higher education from the educational institutions to the state legislature. For more context, look for coverage on last year's HF401 "Core Curriculum Act'. Formerly (HSB543 /SF2033)
These bills are both eligible for consideration in their respective houses.
HF2489 (OPPOSE)
(formerly HSB548)
The bill mandates that the three state universities sign the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” created by the Trump Administration.
There are several highly concerning issues with this bill;
Requires standardized tests for admission,
Mandates "ideologically neutral" campuses while exclusively protecting conservative ideas, and
Allows “lawful force” as a means of maintaining order on campus.
The bill is in the House
