Senators issue letter opposing proposed health standards

Neb. (KSNB) - Twenty-eight Nebraska state senators have sent an open letter to the Nebraska Department of Education commissioner opposing new proposed health standards.

The senators are specifically opposed to health education standards related to sex education, marriage and family, and gender. Topics are geared toward various age groups. The senators want those materials removed. They say it violates “the rights of parents as first educators of their child.”

The letter mentions past legislative attempts to mandate statewide comprehensive sex education, which the Nebraska Legislature has “repeatedly rejected,” and calls the proposed Health Education Standards a “back door attempt to propose what the people of this state have rejected.”

It goes on to say “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.”

The senators ask the commissioner to relay their concerns to the State Board of Education and to those involved in advising and writing the standards.

The State Board of Education has a public meeting on Friday.

Senators who signed the letter:

Joni Albrecht (District 17-Thurston)

Tim Gragert (District 40- Creighton)

Steve Halloran (District 33- Hastings)

John Lowe (District 37- Kearney)

Steve Erdman (District 47- Bayard)

Tom Brewer (District 43- Gordon)

Suzanne Geist (District 25- Lincoln)

Curt Friesen (District 34- Henderson)

Robert Clements (District 2- Elmwood)

John Arch (District 14- La Vista)