Americans might assume that requesting public records would be free. Worst case scenario, the charge would be a modest fee to handle the paperwork. But when it comes to making certain requests to see documents, progressive bureaucrats have jacked up the price.
Most Americans are now aware that the U.S. educational system has been taken hostage by the progressive left. The education of our young children has been under assault for decades. But in recent years, liberals have ramped up their efforts to indoctrinate our children.
One of the few good things to come from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting school lockouts was the rekindling of parental involvement. The closure of America’s schools meant parents were able to see what their children were being taught.
The result has been a firestorm of anger over the left-wing ideologies teachers have been stuffing into our little ones’ brains. Parents now want answers. They want to know what their children are being taught and, especially, what types of books they’re required to read.
In our present democracy, something liberals are feverishly trying to derail, this information cannot be kept from parents. However, the bureaucracy in charge of this information has found another method of concealing their schemes.
One such tactic was recently exposed in Fort Worth, Texas. Two moms wanted to see the upcoming curriculum book list. In early August, Kristina Denapolis filed a public records request with the Fort Worth Independent School District.
Denapolis asked for copies of the book lists for kindergarten through 12th grade. As a concerned parent, she wanted to know what her 8th grade daughter would be reading. The school district didn’t refuse. But what they did was perhaps even worse.
An outright refusal to divulge the curriculum book list would never have endured a legal challenge. But a hefty fee to see that list might. So, that’s exactly what the Fort Worth Independent School District did. They charged a fee for these mothers to see the list.
But the cost to rightfully see what their children would be reading in school wasn’t a few bucks. The district’s price tag to see curriculum reading lists for schoolchildren is $1,267.50. The excuse for the exorbitant price tag was that it would take 84.5 labor hours to compile.
Jenny Crossland, another Fort Worth mom, got the same quote. Are we serious? These lists are already printed and available to the teaching staff. There is no way that it would take more than a few minutes and a copy machine to hand these mothers exactly what they requested.
But the Fort Worth Independent School District may have grabbed the wrong tiger by the tail. Denapolis is an attorney. She has filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s office. The attorney/mother is calling for an investigation into the outlandish fees.
Denapolis is also questioning the agenda her daughter’s school district uses. She has a huge problem with a “resilience questionnaire” that reported asked children if they thought their parents loved them. When does an invasion of family invasion of privacy kick in?
Like many parents, Denapolis was perplexed by the notion that the district didn’t already have a working list printed. The idea that they wanted to slap a $1,000 plus price tag on the information is a strong indication that they’re trying to dissuade parents from looking at it.
Denapolis told The Daily Wire that “this information should be readily and publicly available.” The fact that it’s not is a strong indication that something is being hidden. These are taxpayer-funded schools.
Parents deserve to know what their children are being forced to read and learn. To charge them thousands of dollars for the information is unacceptable, unless, of course, you’re attempting to hide something from them.