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Public education curriculum being considered by Indiana legislature

FILE - In this June 12, 2014, file photo, Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long welcomes delegates meeting to set up the framework for states to amend the U.S. Constitution, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. The 2016 November election put Republicans in full control of a record number of state legislatures around the country, a level of power that gives the party an unprecedented opportunity: change the U.S. Constitution. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Your child’s public education curriculum is being considered by the Indiana legislature.

In Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting, the committee heard testimony from parents and a teacher who says he’s being fired from Indianapolis Public Schools because he’s exposing the district’s shrouded teaching of Critical Race Theory (the district denies the accusation that CRT is being taught).

“I do see lots of acts of racism from teachers throughout the state,” said Tony Kinnett, who has appeared on Fox News and other media, talking about what he says is inappropriate and divisive curriculum. “However I have not seen large amounts of these outside Indianapolis Public Schools.”

Senate Bill 167, also known as the “Education Matters” bill, gives parents some oversight of district curriculum by requiring districts to establish committees with parents on them, which would have some say in what is taught.

The bill, if it becomes law, would also close a loophole that protects schools and personnel from being prosecuted for distributed sexually explicit material to students.

Cindy Black, whose children graduated the Carmel-Clay district, and whose grandchildren have begun attending the schools, recently participated in a public reading of material found in the school library, which she says was heavily criticized by the superintendent because the materials were inappropriate.

“My heart sank as I discovered that our shelves were filled with inappropriate books: books that pushed divisive social and political agendas, books that have explicit sexual conduct, books that do not meet our community standards,” she said to the committee.

Jennifer Hendricks, also a Carmel-Clay parent, testified that she believes by sharing student data with third parties, student privacy is at risk. The bill provides that third parties may not obtain the identities of students from any surveys.

“I’m disappointed that the majority of time was spent discussing a proposal to ban curriculum that’s not being taught in our K-12 schools,” said Sen. Eddie Melton, Senate Assistant Democratic leader.

“Critical Race Theory is not a subject being taught in Indiana and continued efforts to make it a focus of topic are divisive and partisan-especially when there are so many matters in our education system that we could be having a productive discussion around.”

Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington) called the bill a waste and a distraction.

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4 comments

Thor January 9, 2022 at 8:52 pm

Teaching disadvantaged kids to read, write and do arithmetic so they can be competitive and successful in the workplace is not a primary concern of these “educators”.

The state is obviously spending way to much money on a failing system.

Reply
Charles U Farley January 10, 2022 at 9:03 am

The Dems are lying again. CRT is certainly being taught, they are just calling the same exact concept by other names (such as “social emotional learning”) to try and sneak it past the parents.

Their dishonesty is disgusting, and it needs to stop.

Reply
Tim Lieder January 10, 2022 at 11:29 am

This bill wants to ban teachers from saying that nazis are bad. As far as racist idiots like you are concerned criticism of auschwitz and any lesson about slavery that doesn’t say hiw wonderful it was us crt.

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Joe January 10, 2022 at 6:03 pm

This bill is wholly unnecessary. CRT is not being taught and the Republicans are yet again trying to over-regulate and bloat spending on things that add no value to our communities. The GOP has become everything that they once stood against. They make up boogie men to keep you afraid of your own shadow and be dependent on them to regulate your life.

Their dishonesty is disgusting, and it needs to stop.

Reply

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