Effort to get more curriculum info online advances

Republican bill calls for schools to post textbook names, course summaries

HARRISBURG — A Republican measure calling for Pennsylvania schools to post textbook names and course summaries online cleared a Senate committee Monday, with Republicans speaking about transparency, a Democrat saying it would pit the public against teachers, and Gov. Tom Wolf signaling a veto.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Andrew Lewis of Dauphin County already passed the House in a split vote. It is advancing as school board meetings, curriculum transparency and mask policies have become flash points in many states.

Lewis told the Senate Education Committee state law requires schools to provide curriculum information but prescribes no standard way of doing it. The bill, he said, would “bring that Pennsylvania code into the 21st century.”

It passed the Republican-dominated committee in a 7-4 vote. It will now be considered by the full Senate.

Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County said it “allows parents to play a greater active role in the oversight of what their children are being taught” and that it “will help alleviate a lot of the distrust currently between the public and the government schools.”

Sen. Scott Martin, the committee chair, said parents have been pushing to exercise their right “to know exactly what their children are being taught in a school setting.”

Government that is transparent, Martin said, leads to better outcomes.

But Democratic Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County called it an unfunded mandate for already stressed schools.

“This is also part of a larger movement to pit the public against teachers and politicize education while undermining the teaching of accurate history and racial and cultural competence,” Williams said.

Parents and guardians, she said, already can access the information and have an opt-out choice if the instruction conflicts with their religious beliefs.

A spokesperson for Wolf, Lyndsay Kensinger, said he opposes the bill as written.

Kensinger said it could promote “resistance to ensuring all learners have access to accuracies in history, and exposure to content reflecting multiple student identities.”

She said some people “misinterpret these important experiences as critical race theory” but that critical race theory is not taught in any state-directed curriculum in Pennsylvania schools.

Critical race theory is a legal framework from the 1970s examining how race and racism shaped U.S. history and systems that perpetuate today; it has been used recently by some conservatives as a catchall phrase for racial concepts including white privilege, systemic inequality and inherent bias.

Transparency versus mandate

The bill passed the Republican-dominated

House on Oct. 6 with all but three Republicans voting for it and all Democrats opposed.

At the time, House Republicans spokesperson Jason Gottesman called it the second example in succession of Democrats voting against transparency. He referred to a party-line vote two days earlier in which Republicans advanced a bill to revise the state’s Disease Prevention and Control Law and make aggregate data on diseases accessible by Right-to-Know request.

Wolf also opposes that bill. Kensinger called it an attack on public health “falsely framed” by Republicans as a transparency push.

After the House action, the Pennsylvania State Education Association said the bill created an unnecessary amount of work for educators without achieving much.

PSEA President Rich Askey said, “This mandate would amount to a crushing level of work for educators at a time when they are navigating in-person instruction, addressing student learning delays, and meeting students’ needs during a global pandemic.”

Lewis’ bill would take effect at the start of the 2022-23 school year.

“The curriculum plan, including textbooks, needs to be online for parents to review at any time, and those websites need to be updated each time the curriculum is revised,” Lewis said earlier this month. “Too many parents have no idea what is being taught until they see their children’s homework.”

Browne returns

Monday marked the return of Lehigh County Republican Sen. Pat Browne to legislative action in Harrisburg following an Aug. 31 motorcycle crash in Colorado.

Browne ran a meeting of the Appropriations Committee, which he chairs. After Democratic Sen. Judy Schwank of Berks County welcomed him back in front of other senators, Browne got a round of applause.

Browne said it was “really great to be back.”