It is unbelievable but true that the Tennessee School Boards Association is telling districts to fight a records request from a conservative legal group that's trying to get school districts across Tennessee to reveal what they are teaching middle-schoolers about Islam.
I am not prepared to claim that the opponents of what is being taught are overzealous, xenophobic, know-nothings or that what is being taught amounts to pro-Islamic indoctrination. It could be a little of both, but before reaching a conclusion we need to know what in fact is being taught. Public schools are not the private laboratories of educators who get to mold little minds to their liking with no interference from the public. Parents, legislators, the press and anyone else should have access to everything taught in the schools.
The American Center for Law & Justice has made an open records
request of all Tennessee school districts requesting records and information on what students
are learning about Islam and other religions and how students are being
taught and what resources teachers are using. That seems like information to which anyone should have access.
The State Legislature should take a strong stand against any district that stonewalls revealing what they are teaching and make it clear that the public has a right to know what is being taught in public schools. Refusing to reveal what is being taught causes me to suspect the schools have something to hide. For more see links here, here, and here.
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This stonewalling effort is all the more reason, Rod, why I wish you were more supportive of the White County opposition to the textbook issue. This obfuscation is a smokescreen and where there's smoke...
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