Metro East Sun

The Metro East Sun recently interviewed Kevin Schmidt, a candidate for the Illinois House to represent District 114, for his opinion on the state's new sex education curriculum.

In August 2021, Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB 818 into law, requiring all schools K-12 that teach sexual education to align their curriculum with certain standards, an Illinois.gov press release said. 

"Modernizing our sex education standards will help keep our children safe and ensure important lessons like consent and internet safety are taught in classrooms," Pritzker said in the release.

The new sex education curriculum will be based on the National Sex Education Standards (NSES), which include teaching children in kindergarten through second grade to define gender and gender identify, as well as gender-role stereotypes, and teaching the students the medically accurate names for body parts, including genitals; a report from Breakthrough Ideas said. Children in grades 3 through 5 will be taught about masturbation; hormonal development and the role of hormone blockers; the differences between cisgender, transgender and gender nonbinary; and the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. Children in grades 6 through 8 will be taught to define oral sex, anal sex and vaginal sex; and instructed to identify at least four methods of contraception that are available without a prescription, such as condoms and emergency contraception. High school students will be taught about "reproductive justice," as well as how to differentiate between sex assigned at birth, gender identity and gender expression.

Schmidt told the Sun that he opposes the controversial legislation. 

"I am against this legislation, and I am committed to repealing it," he said. "The National Sex Education standards are not age appropriate. Teaching third-graders about masturbation is disturbing and not what we need to be doing in our schools. This over-the-top approach is wrong and goes well beyond teaching kids about biology."

Schmidt added that he has not heard of any support for SB 818 from his district.

"The people in my district do not want the National Sex Education standards taught in their schools," Schmidt said. "There is a recognition from many of the people I have talked to that we need appropriate boundaries in the kind of curriculum taught in our schools."

Schmidt also noted that he thinks schools should opt out of the new sex education curriculum.

"There is no reason to teach sexually explicit material to young children," he said. 

Test scores from the most recent Illinois Assessment of Readiness showed that less than 20% of Chicago third graders can read or do math at grade-level proficiency, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Statewide, only 38% of students read at grade level, a June Wirepoints report said.