Rep. Jim Walsh pushes for parent representation in educational materials committees

thank you madam chair it's good to be back here I I miss some of our spirited discussions about K12 education policy uh and uh thank you ranking member Roode for helping make this all happen uh I do appreciate the hearing and and I appreciate the attention to this uh what I hope is nicely focused Bill uh really it's uh it's a scalpel it simply uh changes a couple of ma to must in existing statute to really have parental involvement in instructional materials review uh a thing uh to make it happen in a way where where it sometimes happens now it would happen more often I hope uh it also includes a reasonable carve out for districts that would not be able practically to include uh parents of students into their committees uh but the hope is that this will engage parents actively and uh and I I think too I hope it will diffuse some frustration that currently exists where in certain parts of our state parents feel they are not represented they are not engaged in the policymaking of their school districts so uh while we are loathed to tell uh school districts or any local jurisdiction what it must do I feel that the good outweighs the bad here and that getting parents involved will not only give them a voice but uh recognize that they have a voice and uh challenge the parents to take advantage of that voice more effectively and in the end I hope uh result in better education delivered to the kids of each district and the state that's about it happy to answer any questions you have but in the interest of time let's go fast uh thank you representative Walsh um I know I did say we weren't going to ask questions and I am going to ask the members of the committee to please uh recognize that we have a very very full agenda uh but I did notice that um we will probably be able to fit your committee uh public or your bill Hearing in the 20 minutes so I'm going to uh allow representative Stone your question thank you madam chair welcome back representative Walsh um following IMC activity pretty closely I've not encountered imc's where parents are not present you have encountered I assume um districts that have an IMC process that have no parents from enrolled students on on them um yes and as to my point uh I think there is an impression among some parents groups that they are not always included and that this would clear that up that they are always included in every reasonable way that they can be thank you are there further questions thank you seeing none uh we uh appreciate uh your return representative Walsh and will allow you to get back to whatever committee you're serving on thank you madam chair and it it is good back to be back here just for a moment thank you