May 11, 2005
MN Education Conference Committee Begins
HF 872 -- the omnibus education bill
The
Minnesota House and Senate have passed two very different versions
of the omnibus education bill, HF 872. Conference committees are now
appointed to come to an agreement between them, and their
first meeting was Thursday, May 12th. Five House members and five
Senators will try to agree on what the final legislation will be.
Monumental
issues are at stake. They include whether Minnesota laws will be changed
to include one vision of education or another.
Some of the issues are:
1.) Will the state adopt controversial Early Learning Indicators
(curriculum standards) like the rejected Profile of Learning that
define for all parents in Minnesota what their infants and toddlers --
birth through five should be taught, including
indoctrination into the political agendas of gender identity, diversity
training, vocations, environmentalism, and social activism?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
2.) Will the state create big government oversight of public,
private, and religious child care centers through a state rating
system based on these controversial early learning curriculum
standards?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
3.) Will the controversial early learning curriculum be
used as a basis for screening toddlers beginning at age
three?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
4.) Will toddlers be subjected to mental health
screening?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
5.) Will parents be protected from the coercion of threats of
child abuse, child neglect, educational or medical neglect charges for
refusing to medicate their children with powerful psychotropic drugs that
have potentially lethal side effects like suicide?
The Senate version says
NO. The
House version says YES.
6.) Will your tax dollars be spent on coordinated services,
including expensive, controversial, subjective, and invasive mental
health and home visiting programs, for "at-risk" infants and
preschool children when "at-risk" is never defined?
The Senate version says
YES. The
House version says NO.
7.) Will districts be required to teach comprehensive sex
education that does not allow an abstinence-only approach, and
that will teach kids how to use contraceptives -- without active, opt-in
parental consent?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
8.) Will the South St. Paul International Baccalaureate
curriculum for global citizenship expand to all of its K-12
programs?
The Senate version says
YES. The House version says
NO.
9.) Will references to state and American religious history
and founding documents be protected from classroom censorship, and
will students' freedom to voluntarily write and report on religious
topics be protected?
The Senate version says
NO. The
House version says YES.
House conferees:
Barb Sykora
Mark Buesgens
Sondra Erickson
Bud Heidgerken
Denise
Dittrich
Senate
conferees:
LeRoy
Stumpf
Steve
Kelley
Dan
Sparks
Gen
Olson
Linda Scheid