Prop 8 Ad Hits Back On Lies About Kids and Schools

Finally! The NO ON PROP 8 campaign has issued a new television ad refuting the misleading and blatantly false statements by the heterosexual supremacist proponents of the constitutional amendment to strip the right to marry for same-sex couples in California. They have been running television and radio ads saying that unless Proposition 8 passes, children as young as kindergartners will be taught about gay marriage in schools and parents will be powerless to do anything about it. Sounds scary? To some, yes, but it is simply not true.

The ad features California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who is also an expected candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2010. Additionally, my former boss (as President of Occidental College), Ted Mitchell, who is now the Chairman of the State Board of Education has signed on to a statement pointing out the California law has no provisions which would require schools to teach about gay marriage or any kind of marriage!

"The Yes on 8 ads are alarming and irresponsible," O'Connell said. "Our public schools are not required to teach about marriage. And, in fact, curriculum involving health issues is chosen by local school governing boards.
No matter how you feel about marriage, we can all agree discrimination is wrong. That's why I'm voting no on 8."

"That ad is wrong. Not one person with any credibility has said otherwise," [former (Republican) State Superintendent of Public Education Delaine] Eastin said. "Prop. 8 is about one thing, pure and simple, and that's taking away civil rights. Prop. 8 isn't about reading school books or teaching, it's about treating people differently - that is the one and only thing on the ballot."

"Prop 8 has nothing to do with education, and the proponents know it," Eastin continued. "Not one word in Prop 8 mentions education and no child can be forced, against the will of their parents, to attend any health-related class. California law prohibits it."
President of the California State School Board, Ted Mitchell, said: "Let me be clear, there is nothing in California state law that would require the teaching of marriage and that will not change. These ads are ridiculous and they are an insult to California's voters."
Karen Getman, of Remcho, Johansen and Purcell, lawyer for the NO on Prop. 8 campaign and author of the legal brief that resulted in a Sacramento Superior Court Judge ruling that the Yes on 8 campaign's claims are "misleading and false," said: "Nothing in California law requires children to be taught about marriage in public schools. The current ad has the same 'false and misleading' statement about education that the judge rejected this summer."

"There's one thing educators agree on: nothing in Prop 8 has anything to do with schools or children," said Reed Hastings, former president of the California State Board of Education. "Prop 8 is about eliminating rights for our friends, families and colleagues, and that's why I urge all Californians to vote no on Prop 8."

The California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association both maintain that Prop 8 has nothing to do with teaching in public schools. In addition, education leaders across the state have endorsed the NO on Prop. 8 campaign, including Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education President Monica Garcia, Davis Joint Unified School Board President Sheila Allen and San Francisco Board of Education Vice-President Kim-Shree Maufas.

As an educator myself I find it distressing that education is what the proponents of Proposition 8 have decided to lie about, instead of talking about why they want to enact this constitutional amendment they are simply making stuff up about what will happen if it fails.