SE Illinois News

Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) is blasting a sex education bill now being proposed by Democrats.

The veteran lawmaker recently made his feelings known during a Senate floor speech where he also blasted legislators in Springfield for focusing on the wrong things when it comes to make living easier for Illinois families.

“I sat here and I listen to this and participate in what I expect to be a prestigious body,” he said in a video posted to YouTube. “And here we are dealing with the absolute nonsense of putting perversion into our schools. That’s what this is. Teachers who are learning to teach our kids proper education have no reason to teach this stuff.”

Senate Bill 818 seeks to repeal sex education, family life and instruction on disease prevention guidelines and instead would require school districts “to provide comprehensive personal health and safety education in kindergarten through the 5th grade and comprehensive sexual health education in the 6th through 12th grades in all public schools.”

Set to take effect immediately, the measure would also require school districts “to provide age and developmentally appropriate consent education in the 3rd through 12th grades,” while establishing what the instruction and materials must include.

Now seeking the Republican nomination for governor, Bailey has also been a constant critic of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis and the way students have not been able to return to school for in-person learning.

Currently, somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000 students are still being schooled through a hybrid approach that includes both in-person and online education.

"[Gov. J.B. Pritzker] is destroying education and our children's mental health," Bailey said in a March 16 tweet. "We should have fully opened schools a long time ago, but JB is too afraid to stand up and do what's right."

“During a more recent Fox Business interview, Bailey said "parents are frustrated at the governing officials and mainly the governor of the state. What they've got to realize is many times a local school board actually holds the authority to do what they need to do and open if they so desire,"