HB2184 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 29588 RJT 55983 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB2184

Introduced 2/7/2023, by Rep. Adam M. Niemerg

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Freedom of Education Act. Makes findings. Provides that no public school district or public institution of higher education shall direct, require, or otherwise compel a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to specified tenets. Provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule to the contrary, a school board, parent, legal guardian, or student has the right to object to and refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the specified tenets. Provides that school boards have to review and resolve objections to the school curriculum. Provides a list of ways to remedy objections. Provides that a school board may submit a certified question to the applicable board of elections to approve or disapprove of funding the curriculum. Provides that, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no distinction or classification of students may be made on account of race or color; however, nothing in this provision may be construed to prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic data by public school districts or public institutions of higher education. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Freedom of Education Act.

Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly makes the following findings:

(1) Administrators, educators, support staff, and students in all public elementary and secondary schools and in all public institutions of higher education shall respect the dignity of others, acknowledge the right of others to express differing opinions, and foster and defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and instruction, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the pursuit of rational, objective truths.

(2) Instructional pedagogies that exacerbate divisions in society on the basis of race, biological sex, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other criteria that are contrary to the unity of the nation are counterproductive to the well-being of this State, its citizens, and its students.

(3) Under Article X of the Illinois Constitution, the State shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.

(4) A high quality educational institution and service is fundamentally undermined when parents cannot trust the quality of education provided to their children. When a parent or legal guardian of a student identifies a curriculum in public schools that the parent or legal guardian believes undermines the ability of the student to succeed and thrive or where an established curriculum is fostering division or is factually inaccurate, that can prevent a school from meeting the State's constitutional goals for education for each student.

(5) The curriculum needs of students will necessarily be diverse, and learning standards and guidance set at the State level may be incapable of fully serving student needs within an individual school district.

(6) Parents and legal guardians for students need to be further empowered to ensure that they have full access to and transparency regarding the curriculum their students are receiving in the classroom. School boards need to be more responsive regarding curriculum access, transparency, and oversight when a parent, legal guardian, or student has raised concerns regarding the substance of the curriculum being presented in the classroom so that students are able to realize their best potential and so that classroom settings are not adopting a curriculum that fosters hate and division among current students or that encourages students to hate or despise their nation.

Section 10. Prohibitions.

(a) No public school district or public institution of higher education shall direct, require, or otherwise compel a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the following tenets:

(1) That any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or natural origin is inherently superior or inferior.

(2) That individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.

(3) That individuals, by virtue of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin, are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule to the contrary, a school board, parent, legal guardian, or student has the right to object to and refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the tenets identified in paragraphs (1), (2), or (3) of subsection (a) in any public school district or public institution of higher education.

(c) A school board has the duty to ensure that parents, legal guardians, students, and members of the public can access the public school curriculum in a manner that provides clear access, immediacy, and transparency to the curriculum in public schools.

(d) The school board to which a public school student is subject shall have the ultimate obligation to review and resolve objections to the curriculum in a manner that is open and transparent to the parent, legal guardian, student, and instructor and the public. The wishes of parents and legal guardians for a student shall take priority wherever and whenever possible. To remedy objections, a school board may offer, without limitation, the following:

(1) That the instructor remove the offending curriculum, provide additional balance or factual basis, or correct any factual bases found to be incorrect or biased.

(2) That an alternative curriculum be offered to the student in replacement of the objected-to curriculum.

(3) That the objected-to curriculum be excluded from a student's grade or be independently graded.

(4) That the objected-to curriculum, or the course as a whole, undergo curriculum review, with the final curriculum and learning standards to be approved by the school board.

(5) If objections are sufficiently pervasive or numerous for a class that is designed to fulfill local, State, or federal requirements, a directive may be issued that an alternative classroom or course curriculum be prepared that will comply with the legal requirement and that can resolve the objections of the parent, legal guardian, or student.

(6) That administrators or faculty members prepare an improvement plan for curriculum quality or justify to the school board the continued use of the objected-to curriculum.

(e) No retaliation may occur against a student in connection with any curriculum objections raised by the student, parent, or legal guardian. Retaliation may include, but is not limited to, ostracism in class, singling out a student in class, harsher grading, transfer, isolation, or any other tactics associated with bullying.

(f) A school board shall prepare a policy to ensure parental involvement in public school curriculum decisions, particularly if contentious issues are to be taught, and to ensure that providers of curriculum and those with responsibility for curriculum oversight are not abusing their positions of trust at the expense of parents and students.

Section 15. Referendum. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for any public school whose annual operational expenses use, in part, non-State funds, the school board, by majority vote of the membership of the board or upon receipt of a petition submitted to the school board with either (i) 250 signatures of individuals who live within the school board's district or (ii) a number of signatures that exceeds 10% of the total number of students who are attending school, as measured by the 10th day attendance numbers of the school year preceding the election period, whichever is less, may submit to the applicable board of elections a certified question to approve or to disapprove the use of taxpayer funding for the curriculum at the next election where members of the school board are up for election for an elected school board or at the next general election if the school board is not elected. If taxpayer funds are disapproved for such a curriculum, it shall be improper for the school board to use any such funds in support of the curriculum or the instructor who seeks to present it.

Section 20. Permissible activity. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no distinction or classification of students may be made on account of race or color. However, nothing in this Section may be construed to prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic data by public school districts or public institutions of higher education. Nothing in this Section may be construed to prohibit the use of federal dollars for federal programs.

Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.