(JUNEAU) - Senator Fred Dyson (R - Eagle River) and Representative Mark Neuman (R - Big Lake) are sponsoring legislation (SB 167/HB 267) that will annul State Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) regulations that are forcing some public schools to screen out all instructional materials that reference religion or come from a publisher that holds a religious perspective.

Representative Mark Neuman's (Chair, House Special Committee on Education) children are enrolled in a distance-learning program based in Galena. He remarked, "It is unsettling and hard for us to believe that DEED would allow regulations that create an incentive for inappropriate censorship, but it appears that this is the case. Recently a number of our correspondence programs were audited and told that state funding is not available and that student achievement cannot be counted in these programs because of documentation in student files of references to religious instructional materials. It sounds like something that happened in the dark ages, not in the 21st century in Alaska."

School districts, in general, have been given local discretion regarding choice of curriculum and instructional materials. In this case, however, DEED has said "No!" by first passing the offending regulations and policies that require school districts to not approve anything that looks like religious instructional materials, and then subsequently, using the district documentation of compliance as the basis for denying funding and credit for student academic achievement if these materials are used-even when the materials are purchased by the parents and used by the parents in their own homes. DEED has created what is in effect a "catch 22" for school districts that have been successful in encouraging collaboration between parents and public school teachers to teach children to read and write and compute to state standards.

It is important to note that DEED has not found any evidence or made any accusations of public school teachers advocating any particular religious or partisan positions. Rather, the focus seems to be on ensuring that statewide correspondence programs purge all curriculum and any related instructional materials that have been published with any partisan or sectarian worldview.

Correspondence programs develop individual student learning plans that are a product of certified teachers working with parents to focus on individual student needs and learning styles. Parents do the teaching, and the certified teachers provide the alignment to statewide learning requirements, review student work and grades, and provide professional guidance and counsel for the families. These students are required to take and pass the same statewide accountability tests as any other public school students.

Senator Dyson points out that the ramifications are huge. "If a textbook reveals the worldview of Sir Isaac Newton, or if the mathematic flash cards were published by a religious publisher, or if a math book is used that relates the orderliness of empirical truth to the nature of a Creator; or if a parent advocates a religious view to their children in their own home and this is subsequently documented in a student's file, the student is marked to be in violation of 4 AAC 33.421(c) and therefore not eligible to be counted with other public school students. It is discriminatory and stifling and inconsistent with DEED's education mission." Senator Dyson asks, "How can we expect to teach critical thinking skills if we shield students from the world view of authors and publishers? By annulling the offending regulations we are directing DEED to start over on it's attempt to regulate these successful, innovative, and prominent public school programs which cost the State of Alaska 80% of what other students cost and require no public school buildings. We are talking about approximately 10,000 students."

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