My View
Our ‘Sinister’ Agendas
BY MARK M. LANE/School Administrator, April 2022

I AM DISAPPOINTED and angered by the latest attacks against public education across our country. In my own state, Iowa’s 2022 legislative session opened with remarks from our governor and a state senator complaining about sinister agendas, lack of transparency and smuggled obscene materials in schools.

As school leaders, we must look beyond these distracting comments and help the public understand how we operate with transparency and provide rights to students and parents.

In Iowa, public schools are required to teach the state’s core curriculum, which was signed into law in 2008. The core started with mandated standards for English language arts and math and then expanded across other subjects under two governors during the past decade.

Curriculum Access

To provide transparency, the 1,600-student district I serve in rural northeastern Iowa and districts throughout our state have dedicated time and resources to provide access to our curriculum through our websites. Anyone visiting our site can open the highly visible academics header atop our home page and access the curriculum link.

Once there, visitors find a full alphabetical list of curricular areas from career technical education to world languages. These pages describe what’s covered in each area and link to grade-level standards. Those links take visitors directly to the state department of education website, where anyone can find the standards mandated by the state.

Some misguided critics seem to be arguing that sinister administrators and teachers are working within that process to smuggle obscene materials into schools. They claim these materials are being hidden from parents and must be rooted out. I hear politicians from Iowa and read about elected figures in other states pushing for a parental bill of rights to combat these alleged nefarious educators.

School board policies already give parents and students the rights to review content they personally deem objectionable and establish the processes for doing so. In Decorah, a set of policies, known as our 600 Series, describe how parents can request exemption or alternative assignments for their children when they object to particular instructional content or class materials. The 600 Series addresses religious-based exclusion from school programs, teaching of controversial issues and the health curriculum.

Additionally, like every public school district in Iowa, we have a policy that details how a parent or group of parents can file a request for reconsideration of materials. That policy is accessible on our website.

Selfless Educators

Current efforts to frighten and censor educators have nothing to do with empowering parents to make decisions for their own children and everything to do with eliminating access to meaningful content and materials for other people’s children.

I have a 12-year-old son. There are books that some individuals or elected officials find objectionable or label as obscene that I will encourage him to read as he moves through middle school and high school. My son’s right to a meaningful school experience that challenges his thinking and exposes him to different cultures and life experiences is just as important as the right of parents to object to books or lessons they believe conflict with their values.

The right of parents to examine curriculum and materials exists in every school district. The right to exemption or alternative assignments is available. People can examine curriculum digitally or look at materials in person at our schools. They can contact any teacher or administrator by phone or e-mail. We are accessible for questions and dialogue.

To claim we are sinister or that we fail to be transparent about instruction is to demean, disrespect and dishonor the thousands of selfless public school educators who are working in challenging times to empower students to achieve their full potential.

MARK LANE is superintendent of the Decorah Community School District in Decorah, Iowa. Twitter: @Mark_M_Lane. This column is adapted from a recent post on the superintendent’s blog.