Giving an impassioned speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Max Wise (R-Campbellsville) said that “wokeness” is real and is happening in Kentucky schools.
“The woke agenda that is not clickbait for cable TV is real,” Wise said. “It is happening in schools across the Commonwealth.”
Wise railed against the Kentucky Department of Education and its Commissioner Jason Glass for launching a website in 2022 that he said: “posted resources normalizing and promoting a variety of lifestyles more than creating a positive school culture.”
Specifically, Wise said that the KDE listed on their website information referring to pronouns and preferred pronouns that if a student chooses to go by one name, the teacher doesn’t have to notify the parent.
In response, Wise filed Senate Bill 150 — a bill that gives more broad authority to parents over their student’s education, according to Wise. Parental rights are something that he said shouldn’t be in the hands of the Kentucky Department of Education or the Kentucky Board of Education.
“I’ve heard repeatedly that there’s a greater emphasis on parental empowerment and engagement on materials and assignments that is desperately needed today,” Wise said. “Our children deserve a learning positive environment within the school walls.”
In response to Wise, Sen. Karen Berg (D-Louisville), whose transgender son died by suicide last year, called on Senate members not to politicize the issue.
“I am going to make an open plea to the members of this body that we avoid politicizing issues that are literally killing our children,” Berg said on the Senate floor.
Speaking after the Senate Education Committee meeting Thursday, Berg said it’s not a real issue but a political and social issue.
“They are intentionally placing themselves to the right of another potential gubernatorial candidate in the hope of winning that vote,” Berg said.
Wise’s running mate in this year’s gubernatorial election, former U.N. Ambassador, Kelly Craft, said she would dismantle the Kentucky Department of Education in a campaign stump speech earlier in the week. Within days, Wise filed his bill targeting the KDE and made the speech in the Senate chambers.
Wise’s bill filing and his comments come amid a slew of bills filed in favor of parental rights in the legislature and the battle against “wokeness” in education.
Earlier in the week, KDE Commissioner Glass came under fire from representatives in the House Education Committee.
Glass, presenting information about the issues with the teacher shortage in Kentucky, listened as Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-Waddy), commenting on the KDE website, said: “I’m sometimes just amazed at the woke agenda,” Decker said.
Responding to her comments, Glass said that the folks making problems with transgender issues and pronouns aren’t the teachers in the classroom.
“The people who are making pronouns and transgender issues, and both issues of priority in our education, are politicians,” Glass said.
In the House, Rep. Josh Calloway (R-Irvington) filed House Bill 173 — another parental rights bill that makes overtures to control how educators and school staff broach the subject of LGBTQ issues, racism, and how schools handle health protocols.
In a Tweet during the House Education meeting giving his reason for filing the bill.
Three Northern Kentucky legislators signed on as co-sponsors to that bill: Rep. Steve Doan (R-Erlanger), Rep. Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington), and Rep. Marianne Proctor (R-Union).
Doan said he sponsored the bill because it takes a “broad step” to ensure parents’ rights aren’t ignored in their children’s education.
“HB 173 protects the rights of parents to control their child’s education,” Doan said. “While some may say that is radical, I would say it is common sense that parents should be in control of their child.”
On Thursday morning, Senate Bill 150 passed the Senate Education committee — a committee formerly chaired by Wise — but not before impassioned pleas from transgender people and advocates.
Miles Joyner, a transgender man and social worker from Louisville, said he regularly works with transgender children and the bill would devastate trans children navigating life in the classroom.
“I know that my trans kids I’m treating, who have already transitioned, go into the school and their teachers start using the wrong name and pronouns, they will be suicidal,” Joyner said. “I have looked into their eyes. I’ve seen their faces. I’m begging for their lives.”
Northern Kentucky Sen. Gex Williams (R-Verona) co-sponsored Wise’s legislation and said the bill is about parental rights.
“It’s a fairly focused bill on parental rights to know what the schools are teaching, educating, working with their children,” Williams said, elaborating that it’s also getting the KDE not to ignore parental rights.
Williams believes each human has “30 trillion cells” in their body. If you try to alter that with drugs or anything else — referring to a person converting to a different sex — you will have issues.
“We should not in any way be encouraging a child to fight against their own body,” Williams said.