WASHINGTON – Amid a national culture war in education, House Republicans on Friday narrowly passed legislation by a Louisiana congresswoman that would give parents more oversight of what is taught in public schools.
The Parents Bill of Rights, or H.R. 5, by U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Start, passed 213-208. Every Democratic representative and five Republicans voted against the legislation.
H.R. 5 now goes to the Democratic-majority U.S. Senate where its reception will be aloof at best.
But Letlow said her bill is a simple affirmation in federal law that parents have the right to know and be heard on how their children are being taught.
“This bill is the vehicle by which we can put parents and educators together at the same table to have a productive dialog,” she said Thursday. “This bill is not complex or complicated, nor should it be partisan or polarizing.”
H.R. 5 would need 60 votes to pass in a Senate with 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has said the bill faces a “dead end” in the upper chamber, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is the lead minority member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where the Letlow legislation will be assigned. He said he’s not even sure it will get a hearing.
“My chairman is Bernie Sanders and we’ll see if Sen. Sanders is open to it,” Cassidy said of the Vermont independent. “He decides what bills come to the floor. But I will certainly push that this be one of the bills.”
Calls to the HELP majority staff were not immediately returned on Friday.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights was a key plank in the GOP’s “Commitment to America” platform, which Republican candidates touted when they ran for House seats last fall. Friday’s vote and the Senate’s action, or lack thereof, will likely be used in upcoming 2024 campaigns.
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