The Arizona Legislature has passed a bill that would allow chaplains in public schools.
The House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1269 by a vote of 31-25 with four no votes April 14, while the Senate passed it 17-12 with one no vote Feb. 20.
The bill moves on to Gov. Hobbs to determine whether she will sign it.
Scottsdale Unified School District officials say they are adopting a wait and see stance on the legislation.
“We are monitoring this bill closely, as we are all education-related (legislation) proposed this session,” district spokesperson Kristine Harrington said in an email to the Daily Independent.
Supporters of the bill say it fills a basic hole in public education.
Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, said “parents are wanting is more ethics, more discipline and I believe more God in their schools.”
But opponents to the bill said it would erode a parents rights to raise their kids as they see fit and would not help students who are facing issues like suicide or cutting themselves because chaplains are not trained counselors.
Rep. Stephanie Simacek, D-Phoenix, said parents have other options if they want to have their children speak to chaplains.
“I’m a parent of two in public education,” she said. “The idea of bringing a chaplain into their school, somebody who has not been fingerprinted, someone who comes in and starts to preach to my child about what is right and what is wrong is unacceptable. If I want that for my child, I have options. I can go to private school. I can go to church. There is a whole program out here that has been designed for parents who want to send their children to private schools to have religious views and even have taxpayers pay for it. It’s called ESA (empowerment scholarship accounts) vouchers.”
Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson, added that the bill doesn’t fill the vaccum caused by a lack of school counselors in Arizona.
“The national average is one counselor to 250 students and we’re sitting at about one counselor to 600 students,” she said.
Representatives from Scottsdale supported the bill.
Rep. Matt Gress, R-Scottsdale, said the bill does not run afoul of parents’ rights because parents can speak to the chaplains before hand and choose which ones their students can see. Furthermore, the bill requires parents to give signed permission to have their child see a chaplain.
“There are deeper questions we have as humans that places of faith can address ... One of the reasons, I think, that our young people are struggling with mental illness today is a lack of meaning and purpose,” Gress said.
Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, said private schools, and their faith-based curriculum, are simply out of reach for many people, even with ESA vouchers.
“You shouldn’t have to pay tens and tens of thousands of dollars for a private education to get the peace and comfort that comes from being around people who are of God,” he said.
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