HR 110 (LSB 5926YH (4) 91)

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 110

BY  FETT, ANDREWS, CISNEROS, FISHER, GEHLBACH, SITZMANN, GUSTOFF, BEHN, DUNWELL, HENDERSON, HAYES, and LARSON

A Resolution honoring the Phoenix Declaration.

   WHEREAS, parents are the primary educators of their children, and parents should have the freedom to choose the learning environments that align with their values and best meet their children’s individual learning needs, with public education funding following the child; and
   WHEREAS, educational policies should respect the right and high duty of parents to raise their children and make decisions about their children’s education; and
   WHEREAS, schools, as secondary educators, should work with parents, not attempt to serve as replacements for parents; and
   WHEREAS, schools have a responsibility to be transparent with parents about what their children are being taught and how their children are performing; and
   WHEREAS, schools must never use misguided policies that hide information from parents about their children’s mental, emotional, or physical well-being; and
   WHEREAS, the highest form of accountability is when schools are answerable directly to well-informed parents; and
   WHEREAS, education must be grounded in truth, and students should learn that there is objective truth and that it is knowable; and
   WHEREAS, science courses must be grounded in reality, not ideological fads, and students should learn that good and evil exist, and that human beings have the capacity and duty to choose good; and
   WHEREAS, a central purpose of education is to transmit humanity’s accumulated knowledge and wisdom, as well as America’s particular culture and heritage, to the next generation, and a civilization survives only if it intentionally transmits its history, traditions, and values, including its yet unrealized aspirations, to the next generation; and
   WHEREAS, true progress comes only by building on what has been learned and achieved in the past, and students should therefore learn about America’s founding principles and roots in the broader Western and Judeo-Christian traditions; and
   WHEREAS, students should study only the best that has been thought and said, engaging in the great conversation among the competing viewpoints that comprise our intellectual heritage, so that they freely make the best views their own; and
   WHEREAS, education must prepare children for the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood, and that endeavor entails much more than merely preparing students for a career; and
   WHEREAS, a proper education is focused on the full formation of a child, particularly the child’s character, and education should cultivate the virtues and discipline necessary for self-governance; and
   WHEREAS, students must be held accountable for their behavior, both to learn that their choices have consequences and to maintain the order necessary for learning to proceed; and
   WHEREAS, schools should foster academic excellence and prioritize a rigorous and content-rich curriculum rooted in foundational subjects such as math, literature, science, history, civics, and the arts; and
   WHEREAS, emphasis should be placed on core knowledge and tried-and-true pedagogy rather than fads or experimental teaching methods, students should be challenged and rewarded for hard work and accomplishment, and schools should help students achieve their full potential, going as far and as fast as their talents will take them; and
   WHEREAS, a republic depends upon an educated and patriotic citizenry, and schools should teach students the civic virtues and civic knowledge necessary for self-government and the task of building a more perfect union, including the value of civil disagreement; and
   WHEREAS, schools should also foster a healthy sense of patriotism and cultivate gratitude for and attachment to our country and all who serve its central institutions; and
   WHEREAS, our shared civic rituals, such as the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem, should be respected and revived; and
   WHEREAS, students should develop a deep understanding of and respect for America’s founding documents and the ideas they contain about ordered liberty, justice, the rule of law, limited government, natural rights, and the equal dignity of all human beings; and
   WHEREAS, students should learn the whole truth about America, its merits and failings, without obscuring that America is a great source of good in the world and that we have a tradition that is worth passing on; NOW THEREFORE,

   BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That the House of Representatives believes that in order to empower families, advance educational excellence, transmit our culture, and uphold the foundational principles of our constitutional republic, the principles described above, as set out in the Phoenix Declaration, should guide American families, schools, and policymakers; and

   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives fully supports the Phoenix Declaration.