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The State Assembly Education Committee recently passed a law that we approve: a bill requiring public school districts to post used curricula and textbook lists on their websites.
According to Ryan Brown’s column in Monday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Andrew Lewis, R-Lower Paxton Township, says the measure could help curb “Anti-American socialism” in textbooks.
We are skeptical that a Lycoming County school teaches anti-American socialism. Such a theory, really, does the strongest against other proposals by some members of the state legislature to prohibit or dictate what is taught in state schools. In reality, a “unique size” curriculum proposal would not fit well in many school districts. Schools where community members are adamant in opposition to socialism are very unlikely to teach it. Lawmakers in these communities may well have such a broad definition of socialism that the demand-side capitalism that parents and taxpayers in other districts want to teach would be blocked by a state decree.
But Lewis’s proposal still allows residents of each school district to speak courteously and reasonably to their school boards when developing district programs and better equips district residents with the tools to better understand what they are supporting. including in programs and what they want. deleted.
We hope that such a law will help allay fears and rumors about what our local school district programs include. We believe that greater transparency would allow community members to contribute more constructively to school board meetings. We appreciate that this proposal keeps decisions about which textbooks to use and what a school’s curriculum includes where they belong – in the communities where students are educated and with school boards elected by members of the school. community that pay taxes.
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