Rep Wittke on Parental Bill of Rights

soaking this all in wondering whether I should even stand uh I guess I'm a racist and an extremist and took the didn't do anything on this bill that you have to do to get legislation in place and I guess I was in a Committee hearing that I was hearing something different or saying something different I guess I'll have to go back and watch that again um this bill is coming forward for for a couple of simple reasons and that is if you take a look the bill says it prohibits the state from infringing on the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing Education Health Care and mental health of their children without demonstrating that the infringement is required by a compelling governmental interest of the highest order as applied to the child as narrowly tailored and as not otherwise served by a less restrictive means so why is this bill being brought forward well I guess as some people in this chamber have said it's because there's this small group of extremist parents that want us to destroy everything in sight I don't know I represent over 30,000 people I guess um I represent them all what no matter what their views are too many parents right now feel they're being ignored by school personnel and school boards when they're Express an interest or concern about the educational upbringing of their child this is in response to that experience um yes and I read the article that someone made an open records request for and I guess if you don't ask the author a question about anything um you can write whatever you want and infer from my emails whatever whatever you want as well um the other point I guess I'll make is that if I sit in a Committee hearing and I believe something should happen to a bill uh I don't think I ever said that I wouldn't entertain any I think I asked several times in the committee hearing if you have something that you believe would strengthen this bill feel free to bring it forward or to put an amendment through but then again what the one reason that I that inspired me to bring this forward with and and I have a pretty thick skin so I can take the personal attacks with the best of them was my experience with a family in my district and I will you you can talk about everything you want in this bill pick out certain things that you believe uh fits your narrative but if you take a look each individual part in this bill says the parent has the right doesn't mean it circumvents anyone else's rights but the parent the family has a right to all 16 things that are related in this bill I will point to two that I went through with a family in my district and that's number 12 access to local elected school board members and number 16 which was brought up receiving accurate and individual information from the child's school why was that important because Quinn the student that was in a manufacturing Advanced manufacturing class was prohibited from going on and taking courses from from Gateway Technical Institute because the teacher failed him twice on a project the parents invited me to and I went to the conference that was held with the district superintendent the principal a counselor the parents and oh yes they brought in a police officer who I knew anyways uh what what really surprised me was the father is a veteran I was really disappointed in the way he was treated by school administrators and the fact that their de their decision stood even though they were told that the teacher was going to help this student he then brought in and produced something that was rather enlightening from his employer which stated that Quinn had the talent and expertise uh on their manufacturing floor that in some cases was greater than the college students that they had hired to do similar work but however because he struggles a little bit with uh some of the computer related uh pieces of of the class and evidently the teacher um may have had some kind of personality conflict with him he was prevented from going on the parents sought answers from the administration but they were told the superintendent makes the rule and that's it and so that's why in this bill there there is uh a request to go forward with a process as well as putting some teeth into the availability of a legal action if it's required this bill puts things in place so that parents feel that they are an equal footing with the um school districts and schools that their children attend and the parents also went to the school board and asked for answers and once again we told we're not going to address this that's why parents feel frustrated and I don't view them as totally rightwing or trying to undermine um any type of educational process they just wanted answers and the ability to raise their child with that I'm going to just close with one thing because I I agree with those that have stood up and said I have no desire to have the school or someone else within the school raise my children I want information so that I can deal with subjects with them so that they can participate in their school to the extent that that that they can learn and expand their Horizons I don't want to be ambushed by there subjects that are going on that they bring home and say what is this that's what many of these 16 rights say I'm going to quote something because uh many people in this body love to point to other states there's a state that borders us to the uh East and in their uh statute language uh 380 uh 10 section 10 says it is the natural fundamental right of parents and legal Guardians to determine and direct the care teaching and education of their children the public schools of this state serve the needs of the pupils by cooperating with the pupil's parents and legal Guardians to develop the pupil's intellectual capabilities and Vocational skills in a safe positive environment and so I'm hoping that this bill will be a step in the right Direction along these same lines but evidently and I also as I listened I I didn't realize that a group of attorneys was a an extremist right-wing group and I and I guess when you don't have anything else you just label something rightwing but I wonder by the people I'm being lectured about about being inclusive I wonder how the children that attend school that our children of those attorneys feel by by having us stand up and tell uh the whole world that their parents work for a quote right-wing extremist group oh and by the way I did the due diligence in this uh legislation made all the uh uh decisions around what should be in the content we had a number of analysis which I have here and had other legal firms take a look at it as well and if if you don't think we need something at the state law you should take a look at the 55 p PES of potential Federal legislation that's coming up Mr Speaker I believe the vote is green but I'm sure there will be some that will disagree