‘Parental rights’ amendment gets out of Alabama House committee

Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, in the chamber of the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)

A Republican House member who passed a “parental rights” law last year wants to put that law in the Alabama Constitution.

The Alabama House Children and Senior Advocacy Committee Wednesday approved HB 98, sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, a constitutional amendment that would state that parents have “a fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, care, and control of their children.”

This is the second time in as many weeks the committee reviewed the proposal. On Feb. 28, the committee hosted a public hearing for the bill, allowing the public to speak on the measure.

“To safeguard these essential freedoms for future generations, HB 98 proposes the approval and ratification of an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022,” Paschal wrote in an email Monday. “This amendment aims to affirm that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, care, and control of their children.”

Paschal in 2023 sponsored HB 6 , which said that “the government may not burden the fundamental rights of parents.”

At the time, Paschal said he wanted to pass the bill to codify into state law what already exists in case law. HB 98 takes that a step further, putting the issue into Alabama’s governing document.

“(Parents) may have their children in public school, but they feel the school is undermining their values to their children,” said Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation, which supports the bill. “Parents would agree they know their child best and can make the best decision for their child. There is always somebody wanting to tell you how to raise your child.”

It is an open question how the proposal affects Alabama residents. In 2023, Paschal said his legislation mirrored existing case law. He reiterated that during the Feb. 28 meeting, when he said that the amendment would align with rulings from both the U.S. Supreme Court and Alabama Supreme Court.

“Alabama already has a good precedent for recognizing parental rights as fundamental,” Ramey said. “Your Supreme Court has been pretty clear on that. The biggest thing this will affect will be to secure that precedent in the language of the constitution so that should the court shift, that long standing tradition of respecting parents’ rights won’t.”

But some say that the law could end up limiting what a child learns because a parent objects.

“One of the things that we are concerned about is that when parents have rights that supersede their child’s rights just like a human being, that is going to prevent kids from being able to get the education they deserve on a number of topics,” said Vanessa Tate Finney, director of policy & advocacy with AIDS Alabama in an interview on Monday.

Parents of transgender youth last year expressed concerns about how the legislation might allow the state to intervene when it comes to decisions regarding health.

“Even beyond that, this is all part of an agenda that really is attempting the freedoms and rights of individuals, whether that is children or women, for the sake of control,” Tate Finney said.

Some are also concerned about how it could affect public education.

“We might initially think that’s a good idea, but once you imagine the burden that could place on teachers and schools, we realize that giving individual parents that kind of power forces schools to tailor curricula to individual preferences,” said Vivian Hamilton, a professor of Law at William & Mary Law School, where she teaches courses in Civil Procedure, Education Law, Family Law, and Race & Law. “That takes away from the resources schools have to devote to the education of all kids in the school. And it ignores the expertise of educators to tailor developmentally appropriate curricula.”

Paschal inserted language into HB 98 that provided a caveat allowing the state to intervene involving child abuse or neglect.

The bill moves to the full House of Representatives.

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