Government Regulation in Schools

Over the past couple of years, schools have been influenced more and more by politics and state governments regulating what they teach to children. The vast majority of these changes have been due to the growing LGBTQ+ movement along with the desire for racial equity in schools. While many democrats have aimed to have schools teach students more about the LQBTQ+ community and black history, many republican officials have made efforts to prevent this curriculum from being taught in lower grades or altogether. 

The main controversy began in February 2022 when Florida Governor introduced his “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. This law, which took into effect on July 1st, 2022, prevented all instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity until the third grade. After third grade, the law allowed for only “age-appropriate” discussions regarding gender identity. However, the vagueness of this law continues to severely restrict Florida schools from openly discussing gender issues. More importantly, the law does not only affect the official curriculum, but it prevents teachers from mentioning sexual orientation/gender identity in any non-instructional conversations. 

Ever since this bill, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been the frontrunner in education-altering legislation. This past week, DeSantis announced plans for a new bill that would prevent Florida schools from discussing menstruation before 6th grade. This new bill is just one example of legislation that aims to regulate the way that sex education is taught. Florida GOP officials are in strong favor of these regulations, claiming that sexual education, orientation, and gender identity are all sensitive topics that should be left to parents, rather than teachers in elementary and middle schools. 

In addition to legislation affecting gender studies, DeSantis recently announced that Florida schools will not be offering the new AP African American studies course, claiming the curriculum is “contrary to Florida law, and significantly lacks educational value”. This decision is consistent with the republican party's disapproval of “Critical Race Theory” (CRT). While the specific definition of CRT is widely contested, republicans claim that new racial and ethnic studies courses further separate students by race, and admonish white students who feel they are being classified as oppressors. 

While the majority of these breaking-news bills are coming from Ron DeSantis in Florida, many other Republican-run states are following along. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin are two other GOP officials who have announced plans to create more educational regulations. 

The majority of these regulations are being put in place by Republican lawmakers who argue that they protect young children from sensitive issues and allow parents to have a larger role in teaching values and gender identity to their own children. However, Democratic lawmakers have taken the opposite approach, claiming that more ethnic and gender studies classes along with more discussion about these topics will help all students feel comfortable in school and could even help students who identify with the LGBTQ+ community but don't have supporting parents (for example). Democratic Legislation can also clearly be seen, most notably in California, which became one of the first states to require ethnic studies to be taught in high school along with a reformed sex education curriculum to include sexual orientation and gender identity discussion. 

It is clearly evident that both political parties have influenced education in differing ways. This controversy is expected to continue as both sides continue to argue over how government should influence education and to what extent the influence is justifiable.