FLECAC Is No More!!!!

In a surprise move, the Fairfax County School Board abolished its Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee (FLECAC) during its March 13 meeting.  This ideologically-driven body had proposed controversial additions to the sex-education curriculum every year, and the School Board had usually rubber-stamped them.  This year FLECAC was poised to recommend that children in elementary schools, as early as grade 3, be taught about “gender identity” — the concept that their biological sex might not reflect their true gender.

A few days before Thursday’s Board meeting, an upcoming FLECAC meeting was taken off the calendar.  See “FLECAC Meeting Abruptly Canceled; Notice to the Public Withheld.”   FCPS officials gave conflicting explanations for the cancellation.  We now know the real reason:  The Board didn’t want FLECAC to take further action on its “gender identity” agenda before the Board abolished the committee entirely.

FLECAC’s demise is a definite victory for those who believe the committee was unrepresentative of the community and a promoter of a radical transgender agenda.  It is good that “teach-gender-identity-to young-children” will not be implemented in the near future.  But the proponents of radical indoctrination will not go quietly.  As explained below, the same issues may be presented in another form next year.

Why did the School Board abolish FLECAC in its present form?

At its March 13 meeting, the School Board gave a plain-vanilla explanation for its decision to eliminate FLECAC.  It did not say the committee was being scrapped because its proposals have been biased or unduly controversial.  Rather, the stated rationale was that all other curricula-related advisory committees operate under the supervision of the Superintendent, Michelle Reid.  FLECAC was an exception in that its members have been appointed by the School Board and have reported to the School Board, not to the Superintendent.  The sole reason given at the March 13 meeting for terminating FLECAC was that curricula for family life education should be developed within the Superintendent’s office, consistently with how curricula are developed for mathematics, reading and other subjects.

This explanation may or may not be the sole reason, or even the primary reason, for the decision to abolish FLECAC.  One would like to think that the Board members recognized that the committee needed to be eliminated or reined in because it has been responsible for unwanted divisiveness.  But as of this writing, there is no hard evidence that this played a role in the Board’s decision.

What are the immediate effects of FLECAC’s termination?

The Board’s decision is effective immediately.  This means that the FLECAC meeting that had been scheduled for March 19 won’t occur, and the committee will not finalize any further recommendations for amending the sex-education curriculum.

The Superintendent’s office won’t have time to consider any proposed changes to the curriculum in the current school year.  Thus, any additions or modifications will occur next year or thereafter.

How will the Superintendent’s office act in the future?

The Superintendent will have considerable discretion in how the curriculum for family life education is developed in the future.  She may, but is not required to, create a new citizen advisory committee to provide input.  If she does, she will have discretion over its size and composition.  Hopefully, any such committee will be far more representative of the community than FLECAC has been, but there is no guarantee that this will be so.

The only thing required by law is that if and when the Superintendent proposes changes to the curriculum for family life education, the proposals must be open for a period of public comment, and the School Board must ultimately approve the changes.

Are there any potential negative consequences of the School Board’s decision?

Overall, the abolition of FLECAC should yield positive results.  Its immediate capacity to make inappropriate proposals that defy the will of the public has ended.  And if the Superintendent creates a new advisory committee, it can only be an improvement on FLECAC.

The one potential negative that can be foreseen at this time is that meetings of a superintendent advisory committee may not be required to be open to the public, whereas the FLECAC meetings were open.  Therefore, if the Superintendent develops controversial measures, the public’s ability to learn about them, and to comment on them, may not occur until the Superintendent has made a final decision.  It remains to be seen whether this will be a serious issue.

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