California's AB 1925

California's parental rights education bill is to be voted on by the full assembly on April 15. Traditional Values Coalition lobbyist Ben Lopez reports:

AB 1925 NEEDS A WAVE OF PUBLIC SUPPORT TO ENSURE IT PASSES THE STATE ASSEMBLY!!

Currently, I am in Sacramento at the State Capitol testifying and lobbying on a variety of critical bills. However, I have been privately briefed about a potential effort from some liberal Democrats in the Assembly to kill our bill, stopping the progress we made on AB 1925.
You may recall that we reported last week that AB 1925 passed the Assembly Education Committee on March 31st. Ten of the 11 members of the committee voted for our parental rights bill. We were successful in getting 7 liberal Democrats, including Committee Chair Jackie Goldberg (a lesbian and Democrat from Los Angeles) to support of our bill. Unfortunately because the bill received one no vote in Committee, AB 1925 will not be placed on the Assembly's consent file but rather must now go through a formal debate and vote by the entire Assembly.

Because of this, some of the more liberal Democrats will likely conduct debate against the bill. Attempts to even amend the bill to change it might even be attempted. We cannot let this happen!
A lot of time and negotiating went into passing AB 1925 from the Education Committee. You may recall that Senate Bill 71 was signed into law and took effect January 1, 2004 and it removed from law four parental rights provisions regarding schools and education. Our first attempt to restore those provisions back into law was through AB 950, which was killed by the Assembly Education Committee back on January 7th. AB 1925 seeks to restore the one deleted provision we mentioned above.

At the suggestion and promise of committee Chair Jackie Goldberg, I spent weeks working with Goldberg's staff, Senator Sheila Kuehl's staff (Kuehl wrote SB 71) and aides from Assemblyman Ray Haynes office on language that would give us what we were asking for and the votes needed to pass our bill. An agreement was reached which resulted in groups like the ACLU removing their opposition to our bill and got the votes of 7 liberal Democrats on the committee who had voted against our first bill AB 950 but now voted for AB 1925. This agreement must be respected by all other Democrats in the Assembly.

If all 32 Republicans support our bill being carried by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, and the same 7 Democrats who voted for the bill in the Committee vote for it on the floor as well, we will have 39 votes. It takes 41 to pass bills from the entire Assembly so they can move to the Senate. That is why we need you to contact your Assembly Member without delay.

I am personally meeting with as many staff members, legislative directors and Chiefs of Staffs of Assembly Democrats in an effort to get the votes we need to pass AB 1925. But I need you to help me and reinforce the work I am doing her on your behalf.

AB 1925 would still require that schools first notify parents at the beginning of the school year identifying guest speakers or organizations coming into the classroom to address students on HIV/AIDS education and related sexual issues. The notice must list the name of the speaker and the group they are affiliated with. If the school changes the speakers after the start of the school year, they must inform parents of the change no less than 14 days prior to give parents a chance to remove their child from the lecture or assembly.

Remember, schools currently do not have to notify parents about who comes into the classroom to give lectures, show films or talk about sexual issues. AB 1925 seeks to have schools give parents fair notice before speakers and organizations address their child in the classroom.

TVC needs your help in ensuring AB 1925 passes. This is a vital and simple measure that must be restored into law.

Please do not assume others will act for you. We need YOU to take action without delay.
This is a battle we can win. I just need you to support our direct efforts here in the Capitol. Please take action today.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!
SPECIAL ACTION TO TAKE TODAY!!!

For All Assembly Members Websites and Emails please go to: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

To find your Assembly Member directly click this link and then enter your zip code:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

TVC also has a CapWiz form for the bill here.

To sign up for California TVC action alerts or to receive the complete AB 1925 alert, which includes fax and phone numbers for the relevant legislators, contact Ben Lopez at blopez@traditionalvalues.org.

(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)