State Legislator of the Month – Rep. Barbara Gleim (PA)
It is our privilege to announce Pennsylvania House Representative Barbara Gleim as this month’s recipient of the ALEC State Legislator of the Month award. ALEC is comprised of dedicated citizen legislators who embrace free market & limited government principles, representing diverse communities across the United States. Representative Gleim works tirelessly in Pennsylvania on free-market policy and has spent most of her adult life living, working, and serving in the community of Carlisle. Prior to her election to the House of Representatives in 2018, she served as the director of operations and then director of business development at her family-owned excavation business.
As the chair of the Subcommittee on Basic Education, Representative Gleim has been hard at work authoring legislation that improves transparency within Pennsylvania’s education system. In April 2022, she introduced HR 2521, the Anti-Indoctrination in Education Act, which would re-affirm the Civil Rights Act of Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by prohibiting public schools or officials from compelling a person to adopt any belief that promotes discrimination or inequality. The bill would also establish guidelines for the Pennsylvania Department of Education to assist teachers when teaching challenging and controversial issues. Additionally, this bill would give parents and school entities a clear path for complaints, investigation, and transparency when a civil rights violation is alleged to have occurred, and a process to remedy when a violation is confirmed, including requiring a school entity to notify parents of the alleged violation.
Earlier last month, she attended an academy hosted by ALEC and held at the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) national headquarters. Legislators from across the Mid-Atlantic region convened to share their ideas on education policy and to hear from local and national experts & speakers regarding how students need to engage with a variety of viewpoints on challenging issues. These discussions were led by moderators who understand that there is greater value in promoting independent thinking than in advancing their own beliefs.
In a recent follow-up with Representative Gleim, she stated, “ALEC’s Virginia Education Policy Academy allowed me to not only network with legislators across the nation involved in similar education issues, it also allowed us to collaborate on education policy like choice, parental rights and educational freedom. These policy issues are at the forefront of what my colleagues and I in Pennsylvania strive to impact on behalf of our constituents now and in the future. I am thankful to ALEC and its education subcommittee for the opportunity to participate in this worthwhile academy, and for the recognition.”
Thank you, Representative Gleim, for protecting individual liberty and free enterprise in the states. Congratulations on being the newest ALEC State Legislator of the Month.
If you’d like to hear more about the fight for education from representative Gleim herself, click below to watch an interview between her and fellow Representative Andrew Lewis on Gleim’s proposed bill.