NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports from North Miami Beach, where Miami-Dade County Public Schools seeks parent volunteers to review textbooks.
Parental Rights in Education is more than just the name of a controversial Florida law, it’s always been a reality for school districts. These days, perhaps more than ever.
So in an effort to avoid situations such as the Amanda Gorman poem controversy, Miami-Dade County Public Schools is trying to get more parents involved at the front end of the textbook and learning materials approval process. The district recently sent this robocall to parents:
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“Good evening, Miami-Dade County Public Schools is adopting new social studies textbooks. As part of our effort to collect feedback from parents, we are seeking parent volunteers to serve on the upcoming social studies textbook adoption district review committees.”
“This has the ability — and I don’t know what the process is yet — this has the ability to become an unnecessary popularity contest of political or cultural views or positions and that’s not what education is about,” said Stephen Hunter Johnson, a public school parent.
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Johnson says experts should choose learning materials, not random parents, but he is ready to volunteer for a committee.
“I would if only because I think the works of authors and the works of writers has to be properly defended from those who would cast their work in an improper light,” Johnson said.
He cites an example in Florida. A company called Studies Weekly altered a lesson plan by taking out references to race in the Rosa Parks story. The company said it was an overreaction to what it thought Florida’s HB7 law stipulated, an overreaction it said would be corrected.
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“So instead of learning Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the bus because she was a Black American, children were gonna be told Rosa Parks was told to move, she did not, she was brave,” Johnson said.
Miami-Dade Superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres said in a recent news conference that the district is adapting to new laws in Tallahassee by casting a wider net for viewpoints.
“So the issue of parental rights as you know, has become increasingly important, and so we have to make sure, as we have textbook adoption committees that we really amplify the awareness of these committees in adapting books and the parents know about it,” Dotres said.
“Parents have an opportunity to volunteer to serve on those committees,” said school board member Dr. Steve Gallon, “and the process as I understand it, is to be one that provides for some randomization and takes out as much politics as we can from the process.”
Gallon said the parent committees arose because of a school board meeting last summer, disrupted by conservative activists who were objecting to sex education books. He said the Amanda Gorman poem situation, in which one parent’s objection created national headlines, was an “embarrassment.” So Gallon has proposed the district review and possibly revise its policies on book removals and reassignments, and to notify the board when they occur.
“So I think this is an opportunity for us to take a step back, follow the law, but make sure our methods of implementation at the school site level, at the district level, and through board communications is as tight as we can have it,” Gallon said.
His item comes up at this Wednesday’s school board meeting. Any parents willing to volunteer to review textbooks can find the instructions by going to the school district website at Innovationschoolchoice.com, click on the Instructional Materials tab and select Social Studies Adoption.
