State legislators are filing laws to require schools to post teacher lesson plans online including books, articles and videos. In a fight to eliminate progressive agendas from schools, conservatives are harnessing “transparency,” a liberal value. Teachers fear that the laws would result in censorship and intimidation. (NBC News, January 20, 2022, by Tyler Kingkade)
The Daily Wire, January 21, 2022, quotes a number of critics of the NBC article, including Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute: “For example, if you teach insane ideas that parents object to, parents will complain about that and it will be harder for you to teach those ideas. That’s the point!”
Democrats are afraid that the transparency laws would enable censorship of anything controversial. The Goldwater Institute feels that teachers should not be operating in secret and with the Manhattan Institute has published model legislation for curriculum transparency. (The Daily Signal, January 24, 2022, by Kendall Teitz)