Nov. 2 is just around the corner, and that means that many states are holding school board elections. But how are we supposed to be responsible citizens holding elected officials accountable if we don’t even know the basics about the candidates we’re voting for?
Admittedly, it is the responsibility of citizens to stay informed about issues concerning their communities. But it is also the duty of government officials to be as transparent as possible about their activities. This is especially true in the case of school boards. By and large, local school boards are the entities responsible for mandating the curriculum taught in school districts. But they rarely face any accountability for the choices they make in carrying out this responsibility.
The pandemic has, for the first time, revealed to many families what their children are being taught as lockdowns forced children into Zoom classrooms and kept parents home from work. Some parents made shocking discoveries that provoked them into action. But the response they received only served to reveal the depth of the problem.
Despite constant calls from educators for parents to be more involved, the moment parents showed up at school board meetings, many education officials started crying crocodile tears. They resented having to give an account of their decisions to the public that they are elected to serve. The National School Boards Association went so far as to request the FBI to investigate parents for “domestic terrorism.”
This conflict between parents and school boards could have been resolved sooner, and less explosively, if more states adopted curriculum transparency. By making public the curriculum that school boards are choosing, parents would more effectively join the decision-making process. It would go a long way toward empowering citizens to hold their education officials accountable.
Most states haven’t done this. According to the Education Liberty Alliance, only 10 states have curriculum transparency laws on the books. However, most of these laws focus less on curriculum transparency and more on defining a parent’s role in the education of their child. These laws vary in their substantive content but essentially boil down to protecting parents’ and guardians’ rights to review curriculum materials being taught to their students.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia should adopt basic curriculum transparency laws.
These laws wouldn’t put an unreasonable burden on schools. For example, Michigan’s law simply says that parents have the right to review curriculum and be present to observe instruction in a reasonable time, place, and manner as long as it doesn’t unreasonably burden instruction. It also states that the school board can adopt reasonable guidelines as long as they don’t unreasonably burden a parent’s right.
At the very least, school boards should be required to release publicly the curriculums they use. They should list things such as textbooks, field trips, education philosophy, teaching aids, and more. This burden shouldn’t fall on teachers who already have a million things to do in the classroom. The onus also shouldn’t be on parents to have to ask to see curriculum or submit FOIA requests to discover what’s going on. The responsibility should fall to the entity that’s actually making curriculum decisions — the school boards.
States should also require some mechanism of review for curricula beyond simply allowing parents to remove their child from a single activity or class. Parents and taxpayers should be able either to vote directly on curricula periodically or be present for public comment periods when school boards are making curriculum decisions.
Can you truly hold your school board accountable if you don’t know what it is up to? All states should have curriculum transparency laws. We need more public involvement in education-related decision-making.
Amanda Kieffer is the communications director for the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy and a contributor with Young Voices.
