by REAGAN REESE at dailycaller.com
Parents Defending Education (PDE) Action, a nonpartisan policy organization, is sounding the alarm over an Arizona Department of Education hotline designed for residents to snitch on educators who give “inappropriate lessons,” according to a Monday letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Arizona Superintendent for Public Instruction Tom Horne unveiled the “empower hotline” on March 9, to allow parents to report public school teachers who are promoting Critical Race Theory (CRT), gender ideology, social emotional learning or inappropriate sexual content within the classroom, according to a press release. In a letter addressed to Horne and the state Department of Education, PDE Action raised concerns that the line may become bogged down by concerns unrelated to “inappropriate” issues in the classroom, ruining the effectiveness of the tip line.
In 2022, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched a similar hotline to field concerns of CRT in the classroom, however, community members used the line to compliment teachers, complain about COVID-19 policies and special-education violations, according to the Insider. Youngkin shut the hotline down months later, which PDE Action could happen to the Arizona tip line, the letter stated.
“As we saw in Virginia, the hotline quickly became overwhelmed with unrelated comments and questions,” Alex Nester, political director of Parents Defending Education Action, told the DCNF. “It was swiftly shut down after just a few months of operation because it turned out to be ineffective.”
While the tip line has already received nearly 600 emails and there have been many unrelated complaints which the state Department of Education is ignoring, Horne told the DCNF. Some individuals on radio stations have made prank calls to the hotline, Horne told the DCNF.
CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.
PDE Action raised concern that tips may be subject to public records requests which activists could use to “harass parents and community members” they disagree with, the letter stated. Horne told the DCNF that the tip line is not subject to public records requests though responses may be published with name and contact information attached.