Ross Kaminsky Show, Paul Lundeen, May 7, 2019

Station:    KHOW, 630 am

Show:       Ross Kaminsky Show

Guests:    Lundeen

Link:        https://www.iheart.com/podcast/The-Ross-Kaminsky-Show-20710514/episode/the-ross-kaminsky-show-05-07-31169503/

Date:       May 7, 2019

Topics:     Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education, Abstinence, Abortion, Adoption, Curriculum, State-wide, Rewritten

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KAMINSKY [00:00:00] See if you can give me one minute on House Bill 1032, the sex ed bill that a lot of my listeners were extremely incensed about. I understand it was substantially rewritten before it passed.

LUNDEEN [00:00:12] Yeah, absolutely. And it was a huge bill. It was almost a 30-page bill that got cut down to about a 12-page bill. I still voted against it, still oppose it, do not think it’s the right way to approach.  However, it had no escape hatches. It had no abilities for districts to say, “Yeah, we don’t want to do that,” or for parents to reliably opt out the way it was written.  As amended, it has–  it’s very clear that a district may choose not to have any sex ed, and if they choose not to provide human sexuality education then they are not required to follow this expanded rubric of what that description looks like. So, you can opt out completely at the district level and it also — in the first version — did not allow charter schools any pathway out.  In the final version they may seek a waiver to the State Board of Education and develop whatever program they think the correct program would be for their environment. So there are elements in the bill that provide greater opportunities for the local community to have interaction with their local school board or with their charter school board and pick a different pathway. Those elements did not exist in the first version they exist in this later version. However the fact that in my mind it shuts down any federal dollars flowing in for abstinence education. I think that’s a mistake. The fact that it creates a moral equivalency between adoption and abortion I think that’s a mistake. So I was a no vote on the bill as it was finally passed through. [clearing his throat] Excuse me. But [it is] better than what it was. It was just an incredibly heavy hand of government putting a statewide curriculum in place as originally drafted. That is no longer the case.

KAMINSKY [00:01:54] Well thank you for fighting the fight each and every day my friend and fellow Leadership Program of the Rockies grad Paul Lundin. Thanks for.