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SUPPORT HB 1447: Protecting children against intrusive surveys

Summary

House Bill 1447 addresses personal or ideological surveys being administered to students, as well as other matters of politics in the classroom. The bill would require schools to send at least two forms to parents asking for permission before certain analyses, surveys, or evaluations are given to their children. If parents agree or do not reply, the survey is given. If parents opt out, their child will not have to take the survey. The permission forms must include information about the survey and the reason it is being administered. The bill also forbids schools or other third parties from collecting survey results in a way that would identify the responses of specific individuals. Also, the bill says that if any assignments involve politics, students must not be compelled to take a certain ideological stance.

Analysis

Unfortunately, activist teachers and administrators are increasingly being found in schools across the country, including in Indiana. They seek to use the classroom as a place of political re-education for students who come from Christian or conservative backgrounds, attempting to teach them LGBT ideology, Critical Race Theory, and other anti-American sentiments. Multiple strategies can be used to accomplish this. One, aspects of the curriculum can be structured in a way that twists a student’s hand, forcing them to endorse or condone a certain political ideology whether they really believe it or not. 

Furthermore, personal surveys and evaluations are increasingly being used to see which students hold views that don’t align with left-wing orthodoxy and therefore need some additional “education.” These surveys can also be used to introduce to children matters of sexuality and gender identity, trying to get them to consider whether they might be gay or transgender. Such indoctrination by educators is unacceptable. This bill would help make sure Indiana’s classrooms are places of real learning, not left-wing training camps.

Conclusion

It is the responsibility of parents, not teachers, to raise their own children. Teachers have no right to override the desires of parents and force alternative worldviews on their students. The classroom should be a place of healthy learning and discovery where radical political ideas have no role. Preventing the weaponization of unnecessarily personal surveys is an important step in keeping the classroom a safe and constructive environment for Hoosier children. Furthermore, forbidding schools from requiring students to take specific political stances during class assignments is another important way of keeping activism and indoctrination out of education. HB 1447 puts the power back in the hands of parents, ensuring they call the shots in the lives of their children, not teachers with a political agenda. 

IFI supports HB 1447.

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