'Good citizenship': Indiana GOP bill pushes marriage before kids lessons

Indiana Republicans are pushing controversial “good citizenship” legislation that would require educators to teach students they should have children only after getting married. Critics warn that bringing these lessons into classrooms could stigmatize students from single-parent or unmarried households.

The legislation, Senate Bill 88, also promotes high school completion, full-time employment, and marriage as parts of being a good citizen, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

The bill’s author, Indiana Republican State Senator Gary Byrne, “described the proposed additions as an expansion of the ‘Success Sequence,’ a three-pronged theory designed to help young adults avoid poverty and enter the middle class.”

“The Success Sequence outlines three simple steps that researchers have consistently shown helps individuals to avoid poverty,” Byrne said.

Byrne cited research from the Brookings Institution and from a conservative think tank, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), which describes such instruction as “a proven formula to help young adults succeed in America.”

“The data is striking,” Byrne said. “More than half the people who complete none of these three steps live in poverty. Among those who complete all three, the numbers dropped to just 3% that would live in poverty.”

NBC News reported that “not everyone shares excitement over the success sequence — which may come across as innocuous advice, but detractors say is built upon dubious data, overlooks racial disparities and shames students who are raised in single-parent households.”

Indiana Republicans are pushing controversial “good citizenship” legislation that would require educators to teach students they should have children only after getting married. Critics warn that bringing these lessons into classrooms could stigmatize students from single-parent or unmarried households.

The legislation, Senate Bill 88, also promotes high school completion, full-time employment, and marriage as parts of being a good citizen, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

The bill’s author, Indiana Republican State Senator Gary Byrne, “described the proposed additions as an expansion of the ‘Success Sequence,’ a three-pronged theory designed to help young adults avoid poverty and enter the middle class.”

“The Success Sequence outlines three simple steps that researchers have consistently shown helps individuals to avoid poverty,” Byrne said.

Byrne cited research from the Brookings Institution and from a conservative think tank, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), which describes such instruction as “a proven formula to help young adults succeed in America.”

“The data is striking,” Byrne said. “More than half the people who complete none of these three steps live in poverty. Among those who complete all three, the numbers dropped to just 3% that would live in poverty.”

NBC News reported that “not everyone shares excitement over the success sequence — which may come across as innocuous advice, but detractors say is built upon dubious data, overlooks racial disparities and shames students who are raised in single-parent households.”

A Brookings Institution paper reported that “While the analysis cannot prove that following these norms causes income to increase, we find that the likelihood of being poor when following all three rules is extremely low.” It also stated that “causation might easily run in the reverse direction.”

Democrats challenged Byrne’s legislation.

Speaking to the proposed in-school instruction, Indiana Democratic Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder told the Indiana Capital Chronicle, “Waiting until marriage to begin having children — and there sits children, who knows the makeup of their homes — and I just don’t know how that creates a positive, encouraging or confidence-building environment for students in that classroom.”

“I just don’t think it’s necessary to begin instilling areas of judgment with students who are trying to do their very best in school and going home to their families that they love,” she added.

Leader Yoder told The Indiana Citizen that the legislation “stigmatizes how students view their own identity within their families.”

“She described the language as ‘fraught with shame’ and questioned whether it belongs in civics courses, adding that it sends a ‘complicated message’ about who qualifies as a good citizen.”

“The student sitting there is going, ‘Huh, my parents aren’t good citizens,’” Yoder told NBC News. “Questioning good citizenship because I was a surprise, or my mom got pregnant and had me before getting married or never got married.”

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