By Eileen Griffin Ray
Some school districts around the state of Washington have attempted to push back on the radical agenda coming out of Olympia aimed at school children. The Kennewick School Board has been leading the way. During the 2023-24 school year, the Kennewick School Board issued two resolutions opposing two Senate bills.
One resolution was in response to House Bill 2331 which said, in part, that a school district board was not allowed to restrict or prohibit the use of any educational materials or curriculum that includes the study of an individual or group who is part of a protected class.
The other concerning bill was Senate Bill 5462 which requires the inclusion of protected individuals or groups in school curriculum.
Specifically, the bill required teaching students about people who come from the LGBT+ community. The bill called for, “directing the office of the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the Washington state LGBTQ commission, to review and update relevant state learning standards to include the histories, contributions, and perspectives of LGBTQ people.”
Both bills were signed by Governor Inslee (D) and became law last year.
This legislative session has begun with further intrusions into local control of education. House Bill 1296 is another bill dealing with sexuality and sexual expression. This bill, if it becomes law, will result in further restrictions on local schools and require more attention be spent on transgender and gender-expansive students.
The bill seeks to, “eliminate discrimination in public schools on the basis of gender expression and gender identity; address the unique challenges and needs faced by transgender students and gender-expansive students in public schools; and describe the application of the model policy and procedure prohibiting harassment, intimidation, and bullying required under RCW 28A.600.477 to transgender students and gender-expansive students.”
Additional expenses for implementation of this bill includes the hiring of an individual for the purposes of insuring that “transgender students and gender-expansive students” are not discriminated against. These requirements are in addition to the “gender inclusive schools” policies previously enacted.
Newly elected Governor Bob Ferguson has officially entered the education realm by proposing that all school children grades K-12 be provided with both lunch and breakfast at taxpayer expense, KOMO reports.
The program is projected to cost $108 million per year. Currently taxpayers provide 70 percent of students with meals. New legislation would cover the remaining 30 percent of students.
Even Republicans in the state legislature are jumping on the free meal bandwagon.
“If we can work through the budget challenges right now that we have, and they’re substantial, and get to a place where we can invest more in education, I think free school breakfast and lunches is a policy that will get a lot of traction,” Senate Republican Leader John Braun told KOMO.
Washington is currently dealing with a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall and poor academic performance.
In Washington Public Schools, 50.3 percent of students are at grade level in English and only 39.7 percent in Math, the Washington Policy Center reported.
“These scores indicate there hasn’t been any serious improvement for public school students since the learning loss from school closures during the pandemic,” writes Donald Kimball for WPC.
In summary, Washington state schools are over budget, underperforming, and overly obsessed with sex and sexual identity. How will they fix it? Placate parents by paying for their kid’s meals.
