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Ken Mercer Update on CScope - Part I of III

"I believe that if moms and dads do not have the right to see what their children are being taught in school, then we are no longer living in a place called the United States of America."
Ken Mercer

11 February 2013
On Friday, November 15, 2012 at the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting, I moved that we ask for oversight and review of the online curriculum program known as CSCOPE.  My motion was in response to the concerns and outrage over CSCOPE by parents, classroom teachers, and the public.
  
Though my colleagues on the Board (Nov. 15, 2012) voted down my motion, within a few days our concerns with CSCOPE went statewide and then to national programs such as Glenn Beck, World Net Daily, and Fox News.
  
In this first of three articles, I want to share three (there are more) of my issues with CSCOPE:
   
First, I believe CSCOPE violates the rights of parents to review the curriculum taught to their children in public schools. Texas law clearly affirms that right. As reported by the online publication, WorldNetDaily.com:
  
Most of the state’s classrooms, some 80 percent, are using the CSCOPE program that also has raised eyebrows because educators had refused to allow parents and others to see what was being taught.”
  
In fact, I was provided a ten-page contract that classroom educators had to sign if they utilize the CSCOPE curriculum.  The contract prohibited, under penalty of law, our classroom teachers from sharing the lessons with parents.
   
I believe that if moms and dads do not have the right to see what their children are being taught in school, then we are no longer living in a place called the United States of America.
   
Second, the CSCOPE curriculum is not under the oversight of the SBOE. All other publishers must submit their curriculum materials to SBOE review committees that determine the percentage of compliance with Texas’ standards.  Yet CSCOPE is a digital curriculum, developed at taxpayer expense; and my fellow Board members chose to vote down my motion requiring that same review process.
    
And finally, here are a few examples of the outrageous content in CSCOPE Social Studies:
·         Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism.
·         Christianity is a “cult,” and early Christians were “cannibals,” i.e. the Eucharist.
·         Students were forced to draw a Socialist flag while imagining a new Socialist country.
    
Thankfully, because the grassroots citizens of Texas made their voices heard (many in my own SBOE district), CSCOPE started removing some of the biased lessons during the past thirty days.
 
My next two updates will share: (1) the results of the Senate Public Education hearing on CSCOPE, and (2) a press release by my friend, Sen. Dan Patrick, Chair of the Committee on Public Education. 
 
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