Iowa Senate passes education reform bill, now returns to Iowa House
A controversial wide-ranging education bill was passed by Iowa Senate lawmakers after debate Wednesday. It now returns to the Iowa House.
could bring some major changes if passed by the House and signed into law.
The bill would ban school districts from giving any instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation in public elementary schools.
Under the bill, districts would also not be able to "knowingly give false or misleading information" to parents about their child's gender identity. If a child wants to go by a new name or pronoun at school that differs from their school record, administrators would have to notify parents.
The bill also requires school libraries and classrooms to remove any books that describes or shows sexual acts.
Democrats make the argument that the bill could cause people to leave the state.
"It is targeted," said Sen. Molly Donahue of Cedar Rapids. "It does not protect all children. It only promotes overreaching censorship, a dangerous path for us in the nation to take."
However, Republicans argue the bill is about parental choice.
"This bill here is not attacking kids. That's not the intention of this bill," said Republican Sen. Brad Zaun, who represents Urbandale. "This bill here is letting parents be parents. We're trying to protect kids."
Previously, the Iowa Senate passed a version of the governor’s education bill in March. It then went to the Iowa House, which amended the bill and passed it in early April. The bill then went back to the Senate, where amendments were made. It then passed the bill in it's current form. It now returns to the Iowa House.