Iowa Gov. Reynolds’ proposed education bill comes with several student learning restrictions
(ABC 6 News) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds presented an education bill on Thursday that would restrict what students can and can not learn.
The bill stated that it would require school districts to put all instruction material including books and lesson plans online, along with steps on how to request a book to be removed. Any book removed from one school district would then go on a removal list with every school district in the state needing parental consent for students wishing to check out the book.
The Governor’s bill would also ban the instruction of gender identity and sexual activity for kindergarten through third grade students. It would also remove topics in grades 7 through 12 regarding HPV, the availability of HPV vaccines, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
The bill would ban calling students by their nickname or using other pronouns that do not appear on their birth certificate unless granted permission by a parent, and requires schools to tell parents, or the Department of Human Services, if a student expresses a different gender identity than the one on their birth certificate.
Also, permission from parents is needed for any survey relating to a students mental, emotional, or physical health.
The bill would require students needing to score at least a 70% on a civics test in order to graduate. However, any student that scores below a 70%, would be able to take the test as many times as necessary to reach the score.