Is Obama's curriculum breaking the rules?

Rules, schmules

Good news, but is it too little too late?  As it turns out, President Obama is breaking the rules with his curriculum plans  that most schools are set to launch on September 8^th, 2009, the traditional first day of school.

According to Christina Erland Culver, who is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education, said that the material accompanying the President’s address is not so good.

In an interview with Fox News, Culver stated, “That’s where they kind of got into a slippery spot.  Federal statute denies any authority to the Department of Education to provide any kind of curriculum or anything that can be passed down to the state, and that’s part of the statute forming the Department of Education.  So they kinda got themselves into this mess because they didn’t really understand some of the key legal roles ore the dos and don’ts at the Federal Department of Education.”

What does that mean?  The curriculum material that has been handed out to the schools to go along with President Obama’s address to the students is not right, not just because parents are up in arms about it, but because it goes against federal statute. 

Wait a minute, let’s get this straight:  The people we’ve elected into high government positions who have hired people to head up committees and run the Department of Education-the very people whose job it is to know the ins and outs of the legalities surrounding the Department of Education just really don’t know what the rules are?

If I’m a doctor, and I don’t wash my hands before a surgery, and my patient dies from a horrible infection, can I just release a statement about how I didn’t know what the rules were? 

Another sigh of relief is coming from statements made by school districts all over the United States that are either banning the entire thing, or finding compromises.  You can’t say American’s aren’t creative. 

The best compromise so was reported by Eric Pera  with 'The Ledger'.  In his story, he reports that Polk County Schools are going to video tape the President’s Address and make it available to teachers at a later time.  How they decide what schools, what students, or what later time, is still up in the air, but what a compromise.

When you dissect the problem, the fear is not that the President wants to welcome children to the school year and encourage them to do a good job, but that we the people, the parents of the children of the United States of America, will not have any way of knowing what we’re in for.  The speech may be great, and it may be filled with wonderful affirmations about the importance of staying in school.  But, what if it’s not, and it’s riddled with political nuggets like the ‘I Pledge’ video?  Don’t we have a right to view it first?  Most parents don’t let their kiddos watch movies that may be controversial until they screen them first, why does this have to be any different?  Why can’t parents watch it first, and then decide whether or not their child needs to hear it? 

In a report by the New York Times, one parent summed it up pretty good when he said, “The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child.”  This parent, Brett Curtis from Pearland, Texas is keeping his three children home.

In that same report, Chris Stigall, a talk show host in Kansas City stated that “I wouldn’t let my next-door neighbor talk to my kid alone; I’m sure as h*@# not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone.”

The other issue at hand is that our economy is in shambles.  We can’t afford to spend all of the tax dollar money that it is taking to build these curriculums, send them out, get schools ready, and put on this address, especially when the curriculum goes against federal statute.  Fox News reported that presidential aides helped the Department of Education write the assignments.

What are they doing about this?  Rewriting the language on the curriculum.  Now, it’s “recommended” that teachers assign a paper on how to “help the President” and have kids write letters to themselves mapping out specific goals to be revisited later.  In a report by Matthew Mosk of the Washington Times, White House aides said that the language was an “honest misunderstanding in what was supposed to be a inspirational pro-education message to America’s youths.”

That may be the case, but parents everywhere should be able to make the choice for their children. 

What can you do?  Before you decide not to take your child to school, please contact them first to find out if they are even participating, or maybe have alternative programs set up for children whose parents don’t want them to hear the speech.  The address begins at 12:00 p.m. EASTERN TIME (your time zone may vary), so there’s still time to contact your school the morning of the 8^th.

If we have to follow the rules, so should the president, right?

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