Parental Rights Alert:
House Bill 3431 Infringes On Parental Rights
Tomorrow, the House will take up H.3431. The South Carolina Freedom Caucus opposes this bill in its current form and will be voting accordingly, and we wanted to explain why. It’s a common occurrence that legislators have great intentions with bills but in practice, the bills miss the mark of their intended purpose. This is one of those bills.
Parental Rights Infringement: The bill mandates that the department of education create social media educational programs. Not only will the creation of these programs cost taxpayer money, the programs themselves will enable American Library Association Librarians, school psychologists, among others to establish what will essentially function as a social media literacy program for SC students grades 6th-12th. This program’s language and prescribed goals infringes upon parental rights and empowers government employees to educate kids regarding the merit of social media content. The specifics of the programs could result in curriculum that says Fox News is bad for their mental health or that accounts that support President Trump pose an immediate danger to their safety. Parents and parents alone are responsible for educating their children in accordance with their respective worldview. Government employees should not be enabled to indoctrinate students’ worldview and what is true or false pertaining to social media.
Increase in Cost: The bill’s social media literacy program would require $750,000 for the Department of Education to create and an additional $500,000 each year to maintain as well as potential increase at the local level for school districts to implement the program. It grows the government and increases spending.
Violates the State Constitution: The SC State Constitution requires each bill brought before the body to contain only one subject. This bill contains two. It addresses regulations for social media companies as well as creates a new media bias program for schools.
SCFC members campaigned on protecting and supporting parental rights while decreasing the size of government and cutting spending which is why we will be voting no on this bill, and why your Representative should vote no as well.
For liberty,
The SCFC
Media literacy is a component of the ELA curriculum already, and teachers should work with their librarians to provide instruction that is age appropriate. Some already are. Enacting legislation for this means that some companies will rush to provide a canned program that can be mandated statewide at taxpayer expense. High school principals will scurry to further dilute the pool of teachers by making it a separate course, and the dominoes will fall. There are so many worthwhile free online resources available.
Please, for heaven's sake, eliminate mandatory college entrance exams and end of course tests at taxpayer expense. Thirty percent of high school graduates go to college, and only 30% of those finish with a degree. Return to a high school exam that measures basic reading and math literacy. We need certificate/apprenticeship programs in S.C.
As per usual, SC RINO legislators "listen" to parents then come up with legislation that briefly, and often, does not address the issue. They usually cap their legislative efforts with bills that strengthen state (or local) control to the detriment of parental and/or individual rights. The fact that close to 1400 bills have been introduced so far this year indicates a real problem. The more laws passed the less freedom and liberty are enjoyed by the citizens. These RINOs do not grasp the concept that the smaller the government the better it is. Personally, I cannot and will not support the elected candidates who self-proclaim as Republicans. I applaud the SC Freedom Caucus for attempting to correct the problems created by the so-called Republicans in Columbia. Good luck, folks, you need it.