Two Pennsylvania State House members are preparing to introduce a bill to facilitate parents’ and taxpayers’ access to K-12 school curricula.
In a memorandum asking colleagues to cosponsor their measure, State Representatives Kristin Marcell (R-Richboro) and Jill Cooper (R-New Kensington) argue current school transparency requirements are inadequate. While state law mandates that school boards post policies governing curriculum review, district officials need not publish the syllabus or name the instructional texts. Districts must provide residents access to course outlines and texts, which usually entails an interested party visiting the school.
And when district residents make inquiries, Marcell (pictured above, left) and Cooper (pictured above, right) observe, those requesters often find administrators either respond torpidly or make it inconvenient to schedule a review. Sometimes, the legislators state, staff won’t permit inquirers to photocopy or photograph documents.
“It is 2023,” the representatives wrote. “There is no reason why parents or taxpayers should not be able to access what their child is being taught online at a time that is convenient for them…. [Our] legislation will further guarantee that parents or guardians have access to information about the curriculum, including academic standards to be achieved, instructional materials and assessment techniques, as required by the Pennsylvania Code.”
Their bill would urge school districts to post online syllabi featuring links or titles for the texts used in each class and the state academic standards for those courses.
Marcell, a former Council Rock school director, and Cooper, a former Franklin Regional Adult School board member, offer their legislation as a companion bill to a measure fellow freshman lawmaker Jarrett Coleman (R-Allentown) introduced in the state Senate. Like the two House sponsors, Coleman served as a local school official before getting elected to the General Assembly.
In his bill proposal, Coleman recalled concerns that the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) raised about past curriculum-transparency legislation and stated he is “sensitive to unfunded mandates’ cost on our school districts.” Noting that then-Governor Tom Wolf (D) vetoed the transparency bill that reached his desk last session, Coleman promised to consult with the PSBA and attempt to remedy potential sticking points.
Coleman’s colleague, State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg), has also introduced legislation requiring school boards to publish curricula online. The bill Coleman proposes alongside Marcell and Cooper goes farther than Mastriano’s insofar as it would direct districts to present curriculum changes at a school board meeting and then vote on those changes in a subsequent meeting.
Many Pennsylvania parents have lately registered concern about materials to which public schools subject their children. Last July, the Central Bucks School District, part of which Marcell now represents, adopted a policy to review school books for sexual content and exclude materials that feature such explicit content from elementary and middle schools.
Some parents have also objected to using radical-left concepts like Critical Race Theory (CRT), an ideology that insists racism inheres in American institutions whether or not those governing those institutions mean to oppress minorities. Some localities, like Lower Merion School District outside of Philadelphia, have publicized their intent to make CRT and related ideas a major part of curricula.
Marcell and Cooper stated they aim to ensure parents get a clear view of what public schools are teaching so they can provide feedback.
“A school’s curriculum must not only meet the academic standards created by the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, but also be age-appropriate for the students,” Marcell and Cooper wrote in their memo. “In order to ensure that both of these requirements are met, parents, taxpayers, and school officials must be engaged in open discussion and have timely, accurate, and free access to all information related to what a child is being taught.”
Neither Coleman’s bill nor Mastriano’s has received a vote in the Senate Education Committee. While either may pass comfortably in the GOP-controlled Senate, they will face tougher paths to passage in the narrowly Democrat-run House. Should a version make it out of both chambers, it will still need teachers’ union-backed Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s signature to become law.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kristin Marcell” by Kristin Marcell.
