Democrats Block Parental Rights Policies, Including Bill to Let Parents “Opt Out” of Critical Race Theory Programming

On Thursday Democratic lawmakers in Maine’s House of Representatives defeated a series of Republican-proposed parental rights bills.

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The House voted to kill two bills that would have allowed parents to opt their children out of certain school classes or activities, and a bill that would require school curricula to be made public to parents.

LD 1196 would have allowed a parent or guardian to remove their child from a school class or activity if it compelled the child to adopt a viewpoint that conflicts with the viewpoint of their parent or guardian.

Similarly, LD 1518 would have given parents the right to remove their child from a class or other school activity if that class or activity conflicted with the parent’s religious or moral beliefs, or if it compelled the parent’s child to adopt a “controversial viewpoint.”

The bill defined controversial viewpoints as including the beliefs that individuals of one race are morally superior to another or are inherently racist or oppressive, and that one should not treat others equally on matters of race, color, sex or national origin.

The parental rights proposals come as open displays of politically charged rhetoric and content are becoming increasingly common in Maine’s public schools.

In March, a Portland elementary school posted video of its students participating in a teacher-led “Black Lives Matter” march, complete with signs and ritualistic chanting.

Last October, the Maine Wire obtained secretly recorded audio that revealed a public school teacher subjecting an 8th grader to a bizarre anti-Trump political rant, filled with half-truths and left-wing editorialization.

In dozens of school districts, school boards and parents have battled over the role explicitly sexual books should play in elementary and middle schools, or whether flags representing transgenderism or questionable nonprofit groups like “Black Lives Matter” should displayed in the classroom.

On a deeper level, school officials and parents have quarreled over whether left-wing theories about race and gender should be taught as established facts in schools, and how goals like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” should be attained.

Co/Efficient polling conducted in partnership with the Maine Wire in February showed parental rights policies, including opt-out provisions, are broadly popular with Maine voters.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they would support public schools adopting safe-guards around explicit content, while 72 percent said they would support opt-out provisions.

Rep. Nathan Carlow (R-Buxton) spoke in opposition to the “ought not to pass” motion on LD 1196, saying that the bill preserves two core principles of education.

First, that “parents shall have the final say over what their child consumes at school,” and second, that “people shouldn’t get to decide what other people’s children consume,” Carlow said.

The motion “ought not to pass” on LD 1196 prevailed by a vote of 76 to 64.

Rep. James Thorne (R-Carmel), the lawmaker who introduced LD 1518, spoke on behalf of his proposed bill ahead of a vote on an “ought not pass” motion that he said he knew was likely to prevail.

Thorne insisted that LD 1518 was a straightforward piece of legislation that does not target educators negatively, but rather is about “parents’ rights.”

“This is not in any way derogatory toward any educators,” Thorne said. “It just says if there’s a difference, the parent has the ultimate say.”

The House voted “ought not to pass” on LD 1518 by the same margin as on LD 1196, 76 to 64.

Also on the House’s agenda Wednesday was LD 1643, proposed by Rep. Heidi Sampson (R-Alfred).

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LD 1643 would have required school administrators to make all instructional materials available to inspection by the parents or guardians of children enrolled at the school, and would have also prohibited students from being required to submit to surveys that reveal certain sensitive information.

The House rejected Rep. Sampson’s proposed bill by a vote of 75 to 66.