The New Hanover County Board of Education has been making headlines in North Carolina this week for voting 5-1 in favor of cancelling a public hearing on LifeWise Academy that had already been planned for quite some time. Parents and activists in the community were highly anticipating this hearing, which was expected to draw a large crowd and a lot of public input from people on both sides of the issue.

Apparently the Board members think public comment or transparent discussion is no longer necessary after North Carolina legislators shoved a release time religious instruction mandate into the state budget. Sound familiar? This is a tactic that Secular Education Association has seen used for these mandates time and time again. When standalone RTRI legislation fails to pass, its sponsors and supporters simply attach the language into larger, often completely unrelated bills.

North Carolina’s new law mandates that school districts “shall adopt a policy that requires a school principal to excuse a student’s absence from school to attend released time religious instruction” and dictates that they excuse one hour a week minimum.

How will this be implemented in schools where a single class period is less than an hour? Will students be missing half of two classes? Will they miss one whole class as well as part of another? Will schools have to reformat the entire building schedule and period lengths to accommodate this one hour minimum?

Questions like these are exactly why public input, open discussion and local decision making still matters. A state mandate does not address the details local districts are now being forced to figure out, which makes local policy decisions and transparent governance extremely important.

Over the past two years SEA has seen these mandates pass in state after state after state. All too often district administrators have the same attitude as New Hanover –

There’s no need for discussion
There is nothing we can do.
We have to comply and accommodate.
We’re waiting on policy guidance.

This could not be farther from the truth. When state legislation requires districts to adopt a new policy, district leadership has a responsibility to fill the holes and adopt policy language that protects all students while addressing the concerns of the local community they serve. Local Board members have wide authority on how a policy is written, what it says, how it will be implemented and how it can be enforced.

Making these decisions based on what works best for their community is what they are elected to do.

These mandates do not tie the hands of district administrators, and they certainly should not shut down public input and discussion.

Show up to your school board meetings, stay informed and be engaged.

For policy ideas and language examples check out SEA’s Example RTRI Policy linked in the comments.

View original post on Facebook