Education

Classroom teaching on race, gender and sexuality

30 public statements from 2026 candidates · 2 related bills

§1The range of views

Why this matters: These rules shape what children learn in class and how much say parents, teachers and school boards each have.

Drafted by AI, then checked for neutral wording in a separate AI review. It describes the question and the main positions, not any candidate's view. Facts link to their sources.

Whether states should limit or require teaching about race, gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, and whether parents must be notified or give consent; in 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that parents with religious objections were entitled, while their lawsuit continues, to advance notice and to excuse their children from lessons using LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks.1

  1. State limits on these topics in some or all grades, with notice to parents
  2. No state limits on topics, but require notice to parents and let them opt their children out
  3. Leave decisions to local school boards
  4. No state limits on teaching these topics
  5. Require schools to include these topics, such as ethnic studies or LGBTQ history

These options describe policies, not people. The order is not a ranking.

§2What candidates have said

Why this matters: Statements candidates made publicly, summarized in plain words with a link to where they said it. Candidates who haven't spoken publicly on this issue aren't listed.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

State limits on these topics in some or all grades, with notice to parents (2)

  • John James MI Governor
    His campaign website says parents should see curricula in advance and have opt-in rights for instruction on controversial subjects, and that he supports legislation to reverse the state board of education's standards on gender identity and sexual orientation.2
  • Lisa Demuth MN Governor
    Her campaign website says she would keep what it calls gender and racial ideology out of classrooms and would remove some state standards adopted under Governor Tim Walz, replacing them with evidence-based math and phonics-based reading instruction.3,4

Require schools to include these topics, such as ethnic studies or LGBTQ history (1)

  • Delia Ramirez IL-3
    Her campaign website lists among her Illinois House record co-sponsoring the Inclusive Curriculum Act so that LGBTQ+ history is taught in Illinois public schools, and says that in Congress she co-sponsored the African American History Act and the Black History is American History Act.5,6

Statements that don't match one option (27)

  • Jerry Carl AL-1
    His campaign website says parents should be in charge of their children's education and that critical race theory and lessons on sexuality and gender that it considers inappropriate for children should be kept out of classrooms.7
  • Rhett Marques AL-2
    His campaign website says he would keep critical race theory out of classrooms.8
  • Tommy Tuberville AL Governor
    His campaign website says critical race theory should have no place in schools.9
  • Tom Cotton AR Senate
    His campaign website says he has worked to keep critical race theory out of schools and opposes policies that divide children by race or undermine parents' rights.10,11
  • Ritesh Tandon CA-17
    An earlier policy page still on his campaign website says parents should be involved in reviewing what schools teach and objects to curricula that discuss sexual content at an early age or teach critical race theory.12
  • Eric Ching CA-31
    His campaign website says he would oppose identity-based school admission policies and what it calls racially divisive material in school curriculums.13
  • Victor Marx CO Governor
    His campaign website says he would require school districts to publish curriculum, teaching materials and library inventories for parents, and set standards for kindergarten through sixth grade to keep sexually explicit or developmentally inappropriate material out of elementary classrooms.14
  • Angie Nixon FL Senate special
    Her campaign website says she opposes efforts to censor curricula or punish teachers for teaching accurate history, and supports age-appropriate standards written by educators and historians rather than political appointees.15
  • James "Jim" Kingston GA-1
    His campaign website says parents should know what their children are taught and have the final say, and that he would stop what it calls woke indoctrination and radical gender ideology in schools.16
  • Ashley Hinson IA Senate
    Her campaign website says parents should have a stronger voice and more transparency in their children's schools, citing what it describes as policies in some Iowa schools that let children secretly change their gender identity at school.17
  • Angel Oakley IL-3
    Her policy page says she will work to expand parental involvement and transparency in school curriculum.18
  • Mary E. Miller IL-15
    Her campaign website says she opposed the Biden administration's efforts to promote critical race theory in public schools and challenged the Secretary of Education over guidance involving schools that tell students there are only two genders.19
  • Julia Letlow LA Senate
    Her campaign website says she supports a national Parents' Bill of Rights, more transparency in curriculum, keeping political activism out of classrooms and parental warning labels on transgender content.20
  • Robert B. Charles ME Governor
    His campaign website says schools should focus on reading, math and science instead of what it calls liberal ideology, and that he supports curriculum transparency so parents have a say in what is taught.21
  • John Moolenaar MI-2
    His campaign website says he backed the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, which it describes as requiring parental consent before a school changes a minor student's gender marker, name, pronouns or sex-based accommodations, and as barring schools that receive funds under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act from teaching or promoting concepts related to gender ideology.22
  • Tom Barrett MI-7
    His campaign website says schools should spend less time on what it calls progressive and woke indoctrination and more on educating and protecting children, and it lists the teaching of critical race theory and what it calls encouraging gender confusion among reasons it says families are leaving public schools.23
  • Chris Dardzinski MI-13
    His campaign website says sex education for children is the responsibility of parents.24
  • Bob Onder MO-3
    His campaign website says he sponsored a Missouri bill, SB638, to guard against what it calls indoctrination of public school children in divisive Critical Race Theory.25
  • Rick Brattin MO-5
    His campaign website says he wants schools to teach children how to think rather than push what it calls a radical political agenda, that woke programs divide Americans by race and gender, and that he has sponsored legislation to ensure parents can oversee how their children are educated.26
  • Brad Knott NC-13
    His campaign website says public schools promote ideologies such as critical race theory and ideas about gender identity that he opposes, and that parents should have a say in curriculum and school policies.27
  • Lily Tang Williams NH-2
    Her campaign website says she rejects Critical Race Theory, criticizes the teaching of those ideas and of topics it calls age-inappropriate in public schools, and says parents should be able to know what their children are being taught.28,29
  • David Flippo NV-2
    His campaign website says he would defend parental rights, cut funding for what it calls radical gender ideology and pass a federal parental bill of rights, and that parents should be able to protect their children from classroom material it calls inappropriate.30
  • Greg Levy OH Senate special
    His campaign website says children should learn the history of white supremacy and of resistance to it.31
  • Alan Wilson SC Governor
    His campaign website says he would keep what it calls woke indoctrination out of classrooms and give parents a voice in their children's education.32
  • Marsha Blackburn TN Governor
    Her campaign website says she would stop what it calls woke, anti-American curriculum in Tennessee schools and that children should never be taught to oppose one another based on race or gender.33
  • Jerri Green TN Governor
    Her platform calls for honest, inclusive education rather than what it calls censorship and political theater.34
  • Ken Paxton TX Senate
    His campaign website says he would work with President Trump against what it describes as efforts by the transgender movement to bring its views into classrooms.35

§3Related bills

Why this matters: Bills from 2023–2026 that bear on this issue, with how Congress handled them.