LINCOLN, Neb. (KMTV) — The Nebraska State Board of Education is discussing sex education standards at their meeting Friday.
Twenty-eight NE State Senators issued an open letter to NE Dept. of Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt requesting that he and the State Board of Education get rid of "ideologically motivated content" from health standards that were recently proposed.
Read the letter below.
Dear Commissioner Blomstedt,
While there are beneficial health-related items in the recently released Health Education Standards, we are deeply disturbed about material related to sex education, marriage and family, and gender. Most of these items reside under "Human Growth and Development".
The Nebraska Legislature has repeatedly rejected efforts to mandate so-called comprehensive sex education curriculum. Yet the proposed Health Education Standards are a back door attempt to propose what the people of this State have rejected.
In doing so, the proposed Health Education Standards violate the right of parents as the first educators of their child (especially in matters of human sexuality). We understand the current draft is the first, and that the process of revision will take time. However, we find the content and tenor of this first draft so problematic that it demands immediate attention.
We ask that all sex education and other ideologically motivated content be removed from the Nebraska Health Standards. We respectfully request that you relay our concerns to the State Board of Education and to all of those involved in the advising and writing of these standards. Undersigned Nebraska State Senators.
NE Gov. Pete Ricketts also called on the State Board of Education on Thursday to scrap proposed sex education topics included in the health standards draft.
Read his statement below.
I am calling on the Nebraska Department of Education to scrap their proposed sex education topics that are included in their draft health standards. The new standards from the department would not only teach young children age-inappropriate content starting in kindergarten, but also inject non-scientific, political ideas into curriculum standards. The sex education standards represent a significant shift in approach to health education, and many of the new themes are sensitive topics that should be addressed by parents at home and not by schools. The draft standards were developed with the help of political activists, and without the input of key mainstream organizations. I am urging Nebraska parents to speak up now, and to share their reaction with the department, so it can be made a part of the formal record to the full board.
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