School boards cope with state-imposed 'mandate mania'

And, of course, your schools made a point of observing Bird Appreciation Day, right? After all, that’s a legislative mandate.

As every school board member knows, state and federal lawmakers have never been shy about putting mandates on the schools. There are laws covering almost every aspect of education -- from hiring practices to competitive bidding, and from taxing authority to curriculum standards.

But the good news has always been that lawmakers seldom intrude into the minutia of the school curriculum. That’s been left to local control.

At least, that’s the general assumption. But the reality is a little less comforting. Fact is, state legislatures -- and even Con­gress -- have been unable to resist the temptation recently to tell local educators exactly what to teach and when to teach it.

For proof, just look back a few weeks ago when school districts across the nation observed Constitution Day -- a mandate by Congress specifying that schools that receive federal money must teach about the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17 each year.

The mandate was slipped into a 3,000-page spending bill last year by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who believes Americans are too ignorant about the nation’s history. No particular curriculum was set by Congress  -- and the U.S. Department of Education indicated it was not going to monitor compliance -- but school officials, being law-biding folks, did what they could to live up to the law.

One of the most efficient observances was held in St. Lucie County, Fla., where one high school piggybacked lessons on the Constitution with those designed to comply with a 2002 state legislative mandate requiring “all social studies teachers to instruct students in the Declaration of Independence for three hours” during the state’s Celebrate Freedom Week.

Another recently imposed mandate is a law enacted in August requiring Illinois public schools to teach elementary and high school students about genocide around the world. The new law expands upon an earlier state requirement that students learn about the Holocaust.

“As we teach our kids the important lessons of history, we have to be sure that they understand that racial, national, ethnic, and religious hatred can lead to horrible tragedies,” Gov. Rod Blagojevich says.

Missouri schools must cope with a plethora of detailed curricular mandates. Schools must find instructional time to observe Bird Appreciation Day, Prisoners of War Remembrance Day, Patriot’s Day, Missouri Day, Veteran’s Day, and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

As bad as that sounds, Brent Ghan, chief communications officer for the Missouri School Boards’ Association, says local school boards are relatively protected from legislative dictates. Under a provision of the state constitution, the legislature must fully fund any mandate they put on schools.

Alas, lawmakers don’t foresee any costs involved in telling schools to teach students about birds or Pearl Harbor, he says, so “we’ve had a proliferation of these little observances in our state.”

And that’s a shame, Ghan says. Although good teachers can incorporate these mandates into their lessons without too much trouble, “how many observances can we have during the school year, when schools are under pressure to maximize their instructional time in light of all the requirements of No Child Left Behind and our own state accreditation standards?”

Earlier, the legislature ordered the state board of education to adopt a model curriculum guide so schools can teach about farm labor activist Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement in the state.

“So much of what legislatures do is legislate through anecdotes,” she says. “Rather than craft legislation that’s based on good data . . . someone decides, based on their own personal experience, that it’s a problem.”

In California, however, the biggest offender in interfering in the local curriculum is the state board of education, Jacobson says. Although every state board sets curriculum standards, the California board has had no hesitation in going into excruciating detail.

“It’s very regimented,” she says about state curriculum rules. “The state adopted instructional materials, prescribed the methodology [teachers must use], and pacing schedules saying what days certain material is covered.”

So much of classroom instruction is prescribed that many schools have had to abandon innovative and successful academic programs, Jacobson says. And that’s more than frustrating.

“The state is holding us accountable not only for outcomes but prescribing how we do things,” she says. “Then, we’re held accountable if it doesn’t work. It’s insanity.”

The Texas legislature recently ordered schools to add lessons on personal money management to help counter worries about young people piling up staggering debt on credit cards.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts lawmakers talked about a bill to mandate a sports psychology curriculum in high schools, and New York state this summer approved a measure requiring high school health classes to teach students how to do CPR and use defibrillators.

Lawmakers in New York also set up a commission to examine whether schools are doing enough to teach about the “physical and psychological terrorism” against Africans during the slavery period. State curriculum standards already dictate schools teach about the Irish Potato Famine, the Holocaust, the Underground Railroad, and slavery.

Jerry Glaub, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, says the mandates that pass are the ones that are hard to oppose. Who wants to vote against teaching students about the evils of the Holocaust or the great deeds of our Founding Fathers?