MESSAGES FROM THE GOVERNOR

Senate Substitute for House Bill No. 2382

An Act concerning education; requiring school districts to include a human fetal development presentation as part of the curriculum for any course that addresses human growth, human development or human sexuality; authorizing the state board of education to establish the rate of compensation for members of the state board; amending K.S.A. 72-253 and repealing the existing section.

Message to the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

This bill is convoluted, manipulative, and wrong for a number of reasons.

It undermines the authority of the Kansas State Board of Education and local school boards, who are vested with the duty and responsibility to set and enforce curricula for our schools, no matter the subject.

The Board, teachers, and administrators put in significant effort to create curricula and lesson plans. This legislation undermines their autonomy and replaces the expertise of trained professionals with the desires of special interest groups and the politicians that enable them.

Additionally, this bill fails to establish standards to ensure the information included in the program is evidence-based. But it is not surprising, as the goal of this bill is not to educate developing and impressionable young minds – it is to push a specific agenda without proper research to back it up.

As policy makers and parents, we should demand that our children are provided with high-quality, relevant, researched, and age-appropriate educational experiences free from ideological prejudice. House Bill 2382 falls short of that goal. For these reasons, I cannot and will not support this bill.

Therefore, under Article 2, Section 14(a) of the Constitution, I hereby veto Senate Substitute for House Bill 2382.

Laura Kelly, Governor

Dated April 9, 2025.