Opinion: David Bernstein Says Parents Should Not Need Congress to See What Their Children Are Taught
Writing about a House report on Philadelphia's social studies lessons, he argues districts should post curriculum, reading lists and outside content providers online. He says his group could only get the material from an anonymous teacher.
David L. Bernstein argues in a Fox News column that school curriculum should be open to parents without a congressional investigation. He writes that his organization, the North American Values Institute, helped Philadelphia parents who could not get the district's social studies materials.
His account. Bernstein says the parents asked to see everything and were refused, and that his group also "hit a wall." A teacher eventually shared the curriculum on condition of anonymity. "Parents should never have needed an insider, an advocacy organization and congressional investigators," he writes.
The report. He cites a new House Education and Workforce Committee majority staff report. By his description, one world history assignment offered the Great March of Return, which he says Hamas supported, as a movement to "honor." Another asked students to identify the United States and Israel as terrorist states. He says students should study violent movements but that "honor" moves from study to celebration.
The district's response. Superintendent Tony Watlington told investigators the curriculum did not indoctrinate students, Bernstein writes, but said he did not know it used material from the Racial Justice Organizing Committee, a group led by district employees. He says the district will stop having its own staff write social studies curricula and has put its curriculum director, Ismael Jimenez, in termination proceedings. Bernstein says Jimenez celebrated the Oct. 7 massacres.
His fix. Districts should publish guides, reading lists, assignments, outside sources and teacher training on searchable sites, name who approved them, and show changes. He says this would not give parents a veto: "Publishing a school system's budget does not give every taxpayer veto power over spending."
Note for readers: this is an opinion piece. The report's findings and the claim about Jimenez come from Bernstein's account of the report and the district's statements, and we did not read the report. The column carries no new response from the district or Jimenez.