Proposed Amendment Would Remove Legislative Oversight of Public Education Rules
A proposed constitutional amendment vying for the ballot this November would remove legislative oversight of public education rules.
Watch this video to learn more.
Family Council Sends FOIA Request to Arkansas Children’s Hospital
On February 14, Family Council sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Arkansas Children’s Hospital concerning hormone therapies and puberty suppressants
Family Council requested the following from Arkansas Children’s Hospital:
- Any and all information (including educational materials in any medium) made available within the past five years to patients or their parents/guardians concerning treatment with a hormone, hormone suppressant, and/or pubertal blocker for the following conditions:
- Gender identity disorder
- Gender dysphoria
- Gender incongruence
- Any and all information (including copies of blank consent forms) used within the past five years for the purpose of obtaining a patient’s or parent/guardian’s informed consent to treatment with a hormone, hormone suppressant, and/or pubertal blocker for the same conditions listed in 1. above.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital wrote back in response that the records requested are not public records and that the hospital is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, in 2017 a circuit judge in Little Rock opined that Arkansas Children’s Hospital is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The FOIA request to Arkansas Children’s Hospital is part of ongoing research we are doing about how cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers are administered in Arkansas.
In 2021 the Arkansas Legislature passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.
The SAFE Act is an excellent law that protects children from sex-reassignment procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones.
Researchers do not know the long term effects that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones can have on kids.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never approved puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the purpose of gender transition. Doctors are giving these hormones to kids off-label, in a manner the FDA never intended.
That is part of the reason many experts agree that giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children is experimental, at best.
Children’s Hospital operates a pro-transgender Gender Spectrum Clinic for minors, and it isn’t clear what protocols Children’s Hospital follows concerning puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
The ACLU and others filed a lawsuit against the SAFE Act last summer, before the law officially took effect, and a federal judge in Little Rock has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law.
Several business interests and the Biden-Harris Administration also have joined the fight against Arkansas’ SAFE Act.
Arkansas’ Attorney General has asked the Eighth Circuit to let the state enforce the SAFE Act. A trial in the case is scheduled for the week of July 25, 2022.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Remove Legislative Oversight From Arkansas’ Public Education
A proposed constitutional amendment would make it more difficult for the Arkansas Legislature and the governor to oversee public education or hold educators accountable.
Arkansans For World Class Education is working to place the “Public Schools Amendment of 2022” on the ballot this November.
Among other things, the proposed amendment would remove the provision in the Arkansas Constitution that gives the state’s General Assembly the ability to make laws concerning the State Board of Education.
Currently, the Arkansas Constitution says,
The supervision of public schools, and the execution of the laws regulating the same, shall be vested in and confided to, such officers as may be provided for by the General Assembly.
Under this provision, the General Assembly gets to establish offices that oversee public education — such as a Department of Education, Secretary of Education, and State Board of Education. The governor appoints people to fill those positions.
The Public Schools Amendment of 2022 would strike this provision from the constitution, and replace it with new language that puts an unelected board in charge of public education in Arkansas. The amendment says that anyone who has served on the State Board of Education in the past 10 years would be ineligible to serve on this new board, and that the governor and the Arkansas Legislature would not have the power to review or approve new rules or policies the board makes concerning public education in Arkansas.
If the legislature and the governor cannot govern the State Board of Education and the rules that it writes, then just how much oversight would public education have in Arkansas under this amendment? The answer, it seems, is very little.