LD 1518 would have allowed parents to withdraw their children temporarily from a class or school activity if, among other things, the parent believed the class might lead their child to adopt “controversial viewpoints.” While schools already have policies in place to address education that conflicts with parents’ sincerely held religious beliefs, this bill would have defined discussions of race, color, sex, and national origin as “controversial” under state law, making a student’s very identity controversial and allowing parents to remove their children from hearing about any of these topics. Schools are places where young people learn how to be engaged citizens in a democracy – how to form an opinion, how to back up that opinion with supporting evidence, and how to disagree respectfully. Impeding this development impedes our future democracy.