STATEMENT: PDE Action Supports Say No to Indoctrination Act

Parents expect that when they drop their child off at school, they’ll learn lessons about reading, writing, and math. Instead, Parents Defending Education has found lesson after lesson about gender ideology, teaching children that they can change their “assigned sex at birth” if they don’t feel it matches their “gender identity.” These lessons tell children who are young enough to still believe in Santa Claus they can decide if they don’t belong in the body they were born in.

Lessons about gender ideology also lay the groundwork for “parental exclusion policies,” which state that a parent does not need to be informed if their child wants to go by a different name or pronouns or use opposite sex facilities at school. These policies imply to children that their parents don’t love and support them, eroding trust between parents and their children. Parents Defending Education has tracked over 1,200 districts with parental exclusion policies nationwide.

In his executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” President Trump reaffirmed the biological reality of the sex binary and declared that federal funding will no longer be used to support gender ideology. Congressman Burgess Owens’ Say No to Indoctrination Act codifies the executive order in America’s public schools. The Say No to Indoctrination Act amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to prevent federal funds from being used to teach gender ideology.

We commend Congressman Burgess Owens for standing with the 74% of parents who oppose the teaching of gender ideology in the classroom. PDE Action proudly supports the Say No to Indoctrination Act.

You can read the full bill text here.

“Parents Defending Education has been tracking harmful lessons promoting gender ideology since our founding in 2021. These lessons cause confusion in young children, telling them that they can change their ‘assigned sex at birth’ if they feel it doesn’t match their ‘gender identity’ rather than teach them that they’re perfect just the way they are.

Congressman Burgess Owens’ Say No to Indoctrination Act codifies President Trump’s executive order preventing taxpayer dollars from funding this harmful ideology, ensuring that America’s children today and the in future are protected from it. PDE Action commends Congressman Burgess Owens for standing with the 74% of parents who oppose the teaching of gender ideology in the classroom, and we proudly support the Say No to Indoctrination Act.” – PDE Action