A bill from North Carolina Senate Republicans that regulates teaching about LGBTQ people is almost surely going to be blocked by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, if it gets that far.
But expect to see it live on in the election, which is shaping up to be fought on many familiar culture-war battlegrounds as well as newer ones involving parents’ role in schools. One supporter called it a litmus test for voting this fall.
The General Assembly has Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, but not the supermajorities needed to override a veto from the governor unless Democrats vote with them.
On Wednesday, Cooper compared the bill to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“Schools are grateful for involved parents and we need even more of them working together with teachers to educate our children,” Cooper said in an emailed statement. “However, the last thing our state needs is another Republican political ploy like the bathroom bill which hurt our people and cost us jobs, so let’s keep the “Don’t Say Gay” culture wars out of North Carolina classrooms,” he said.
House Bill 755 was replaced with a new bill that outlines how information would be shared between parents and schools. It would ban curriculum about LGBTQ people for students in kindergarten through third grade, among other things.
The bill would require notifying parents of “changes in the name or pronoun used for a student” at school, and would ban “instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity” in K-3 curriculum.
In a committee on Wednesday, Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican, said the bill is “in no way restricting or prohibiting any conversation” in classrooms.
“If a teacher has a same-sex partner, we’re not stifling discussion,” she said.
Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Guilford County Democrat and former school principal and administrator, said much of the bill repeats policy that already exists about parent interaction with schools.
“What is the purpose?” Robinson asked in the committee. She called it an undue burden on schools and classrooms.
Comparisons to ‘bathroom bill’
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Raleigh Democrat, said the bill “censors and mandates what’s taught in our classrooms by politicians.” He said it could be interpreted as “sending a signal outside North Carolina that our state is not a welcoming place.”
He also likened it to the “return of an HB2-like bill that will essentially halt or slow down the great economic development we’ve had in North Carolina.”
HB2, which became known nationally as “the bathroom bill,” was mostly repealed. It banned transgender people in schools and other government buildings from using restrooms that corresponded to their identity. It had a negative economic impact on the state and was blamed for several businesses and major events being located elsewhere as a result.
Chaudhuri also questioned the timing of the education bill the day after at least 19 elementary school children and two teachers were shot and killed at a school in Ulvade, Texas.
“As a parent, the right I care about is the right to keep our children safe in schools,” he said.
“Censoring school curriculums isn’t going to keep our kids alive,” and said they should set the legislation aside and “do something that addresses every parent’s worst fear today, that our kids could be shot dead in school.”
Chaudhuri and Republican Sen. Michael Lee had a tense exchange, with Republicans telling Chaudhuri his comments were not germane to the bill. Lee said “we all feel for the folks in Texas” and accused Chaudhuri of using the bill as a platform for “some other political gain.”
‘Litmus’ for election
Renee Sekel, who is part of Save Our Schools NC, which advocates for public schools, said the bill “will harm children.”
Sekel said she was abused as a child and after she told a teacher about what was happening at home, the abuse continued.
“I learned that school was safe only as long as I kept my mouth shut,” she said.
Tamika Walker Kelly, leader of the North Carolina Association of Educators, opposed the bill, saying it “does nothing to address the very real issues facing our public education system today.”
Pat Blackburn of Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents’ rights group, was one of multiple speakers who told senators they supported the bill. She called it “a start.”
“This is a litmus for how we are all voting in November,” Blackburn said.
All 120 House seats and 50 Senate seats in the General Assembly are up for election this fall.
Rolled out in a press conference on Tuesday night, the bill cleared its first hurdle Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee. It still has to go through more committees before going to the Senate floor for a vote. Then the House would also have to vote on the bill. If it passes the legislature, it would go to Cooper’s desk.
Lee, of New Hanover County, told The N&O after the meeting that it could go to the Senate Health committee this or next week, and hopes it would go to a vote on the Senate floor in the next couple of weeks.
Lee remains hopeful about the bill’s future.
“I have no control over the House or the governor, all I can control is what we do in the Senate. So I’m hopeful the House passes the bill intact, and I’m hopeful the governor signs it,” he said.
