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Bill Ties School Funding to Parental Watchdog CouncilsRep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) introduced a bill May 11 that prohibits a state from receiving “any funds under any [Education Department] program or activity” unless it establishes a “parent review and empowerment council” at each local education agency. H.R. 2295 requires parent councils to meet at least every six months to “provide significant input . . . regarding the purchase or acquisition of any library or classroom-based reference, instructional, or other print material for use in any elementary school,” except textbooks. The councils would be comprised of 5–15 members, most of whom would be parents of students enrolled in that district’s school system.While the Parental Empowerment Act of 2005 specifies that “nothing in this act shall be construed to create a federal prohibition against the purchase or acquisition [of materials],” it would require parent councils to recommend, as needed, “that the relevant decision-making body review and specifically determine whether part of the proposed purchase or acquisition is appropriate.” Jones has stated that he introduced the bill after reading last year in the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News about the discomfort felt by the parents of a 7-year-old who read aloud to them the gay-positive picture book King and King, which she had borrowed from the school library. “You can’t ban the book,” Jones said in the May 17 Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill. “This is the only way to do it.” On May 18 American Library Association President Carol Brey-Casiano stated that the Association is “deeply concerned” about the bill, which she said would “empower a small review board to decide for all families in a community what materials will be available.” Characterizing the legislation as “a solution in search of a problem,” Brey-Casiano went on to note, “There is no need for federal interference in a local community’s decisions about its education needs” since “communities already elect parents and community representatives to local school boards.” H.R. 2295 has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Posted May 20, 2005. |
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