Jon Reisman

Shocker: Dems support it, GOP (mostly) opposes

Party line votes in Augusta last week defeated LD 550, a Resolve Directing the State Board of Education to Adopt Rules Prohibiting Teachers in Public Schools from Engaging in Political, Ideological or Religious Advocacy in the Classroom. The teachers union (of course) and school administrators  opposed the bill, and the education lobby did everything it could to prevent an on the record vote, but Maine parents and citizens who recognized the poisonous effects of indoctrinating students with Marxist racist doctrines that lead to hating our country applied sufficient pressure to force an on the record vote. The legacy media declined to report on the bill or the vote, and much credit goes to the GOP 2nd CD sponsors ( Reps. Carmichael (Greenbush), Dolloff (Milton Twp), Ducharme (Madison), Griffin (Levant), Mason (Lisbon) and Poirier (Skowhegan) and former Rep. Larry Lockman (Bradley) for mobilizing  support and demanding accountability from both Democrats and Republicans.
The Preamble and summary are worth noting as you contemplate partisan reaction and media unwillingness to report on the bill:
Preamble.  Whereas, the purpose of public education in America is to produce knowledgeable and competent adults able to participate as informed citizens in the democratic process; and
Whereas, education in a democracy is best served by teaching students how to think, not telling them what to think; and
Whereas, our country is divided over many issues affecting its citizens; and
Whereas, it has been established through surveys that a majority of kindergarten to grade 12 teachers discuss controversial issues in their classrooms; and
Whereas, it has been established that some teacher training institutions, teacher licensing agencies, state education departments and professional teacher organizations have condoned and even encouraged this behavior under the guise of "teaching for social justice" and other sectarian doctrines; and
Whereas, time spent on political or ideological indoctrination takes time away from instruction in the academic subjects taught by public educational institutions including the foundational subjects of mathematics, science, English, history and civics and prevents students from receiving the best possible public education as funded by the taxpayers of the State; and
Whereas, parents and taxpayers have a right to expect that taxpayer resources will be spent on education, not political or ideological indoctrination.
SUMMARY
This resolve directs the State Board of Education to adopt major substantive rules prohibiting teachers in public schools from engaging in political, religious or ideological advocacy in the classroom or from introducing any controversial subject matter that is not germane to the topic of the course being taught, with penalties for violations up to and including termination of the teacher.  This resolve requires the State Board of Education to provide written notice of the rules to all affected teachers, parents and students and for teachers to receive annually at least 3 hours of continuing teacher education to instruct the teachers on the rules.  Finally, this resolve directs the Department of Education to request professional teacher organizations and unions to voluntarily adopt an educator's code of ethics and professional responsibility that incorporates the rules and that specifically prohibits teachers in kindergarten to grade 12 instruction from using the classroom for political indoctrination.
Twenty-one States are considering similar legislation to ban or limit CRT in public schools; another group with Republican Governors, including Florida, are pursuing executive branch rulemaking to reign in CRT. President Biden’s Departments of Justice and Education are pushing CRT as hard and fast as his recently confirmed nominees can, and his nominee for the Office of Personnel and Management is a committed CRT devotee who would foist CRT indoctrination and training upon the entire federal workforce. Senators Collins and King will likely soon vote to confirm her as yet another woke racist in a top Biden administration job. Meanwhile, I am happy to report that Senator Moore and Reps. Tuell and Javner opposed CRT indoctrination, and sorry to confirm that Reps. Alley and Perry supported it.
Jon Reisman is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias. His views are his own. Mr. Reisman welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].