Gov. Tom Wolf vetos curriculum transparency bill, calling it a 'dangerous and harmful imposition'

Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday vetoed legislation that would have required public schools to post online educational materials used in their classrooms.

"Under the guise of transparency, this legislation politicizes what is being taught in our public schools," Wolf said in his veto message.

The bill would have required school administrators to post and periodically update course syllabuses, course summaries, the state academic standard to each instructional course, and title or link to textbooks used in the school, unless it violated a copyright law.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Andrew Lewis, R-Dauphin County, said many schools already do this so his bill intended to standardize this practice across all school districts, charter schools, intermediate units and career and technical schools.

They maintain parents and guardians who want to review curriculum and textbooks already can access this information by requesting it from their child's teachers, school administrators or school board members.

Several public school advocacy groups including the Pennsylvania State Education Association and Pennsylvania School Boards Association were among those opposed to the legislation, which led to Lewis accusing the governor of catering to special interests.

Wolf said imposing such a requirement on schools would have proven to be a distraction for "Educators who should be focused on critical issues such as addressing learning loss, managing the impacts of the pandemic on students, and working through staffing shortages."

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/12/gov-tom-wolf-vetos-curriculum-transparency-bill-calling-it-a-dangerous-and-harmful-imposition.html