Schools deciding whether to air Obama address
| Wednesday, Sep 02 2009 06:32 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Sep 02 2009 06:34 PM
When word started circulating that President Barack Obama would deliver a national address directly to the nation's students on Tuesday, it didn't take long for the decision to become politicized.
Some conservative bloggers and reportedly one local talk radio host have already called for parents to keep their kids home from schools that decide to air the president's address.
But in practical terms, a boycott may not be necessary to, as one blogger put it, protect children from a president who "is taking his special brand of brainwashing to the classroom."
Norris School District Superintendent Wally McCormick said all information and materials allowed in Norris classrooms must first be vetted by the district board, even, apparently, words spoken live by the president of the United States.
"There are no exceptions," McCormick said.
Officials in other Bakersfield districts also are taking a cautious approach to the speech, in which the president has said he will challenge students to work hard, set education goals and take responsibility for their learning.
It doesn't sound like a radical agenda of indoctrination, as some claim -- nevertheless, parents get to make the ultimate call when it comes to their children.
Like many school officials, Rosedale Union School District Superintendent Jaime Henderson said he and his staff didn't know anything about the speech until this week.
Like McCormick, Henderson said district officials will probably tape the president's talk so they can watch it and decide if it is appropriate for possible later use.
"Whether we will run it live, we're still kicking it around," he said.
"On the surface, I'm thinking, OK, I can see it in civics and history classes," Henderson said.
But the president is also a political figure, Henderson noted. And parents in California have always had the right to block their kids from hearing information in the classroom they find objectionable.
Some districts have received one or two calls from concerned parents. Some indicated they had heard about Obama's address on a local radio talk show.
Chris Crawford, superintendent of the Greenfield Union School District, said his staff took one call from an individual who protested any airing of Obama's speech -- and a second call from a parent who asked why any school would choose not to air a presidential address.
But for Crawford, the issue is almost moot.
"We only have one, maybe two school sites that have the ability to show this in the classroom," Crawford said.
Most classrooms in the district don't have a TV monitor, and only one school site has cable, he said.
And beyond the technical roadblocks, there are educational and financial concerns.
Schools receive state funding based on daily average attendance, so some schools could lose money if parents pull out their kids.
And the 9 a.m. speech will run during "sacred" time when students receive hours of uninterrupted math and English instruction. And for schools under pressure to raise state test scores, instructional time is truly sacred.
