Texas superintendent denies students a chance to see the president -- twice

A recent string of decisions made by officials at the Arlington Independent School District in Texas has ensured that there will be no politics in the classroom there. And, apparently, there will be no fun, either.

It all began last week, when district Superintendent Jerry McCullough denied students a chance to watch President  Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren about the importance of education. McCullough banned the address because, he said, it might interfere with lesson plans and cause a distraction.

But then word leaked that McCullough had approved a Sept. 21 field trip for 600 fifth-graders to the Cowboys Stadium for a Super Bowl XLV kickoff event. Among the speakers scheduled for the event: former President George W. Bush.

Some parents complained. And the local and national media pounced. The superintendent, they charged, was clearly partisan.

So McCullough canceled the Bush event, too.

In a statement released Monday, McCullough said the decision was made "in order to maintain our focus on instruction."

But the students got the worst of it. They missed out on a political education -- and a field trip.

-- Kate Linthicum

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Comments

[Dallas]

Come on Jerry, lighten up & unclench !

Geez, our standing President expressing to our children to stay in school & work hard is politicking ? I find it refreshing he did so, what with the nation in a mess, thanks to the prior Admin's. 8 years of lying & cheating the American people. That said, I am not a Democrat either, rather, I am an Indie & vote by conscience, not by party.
But get real Jerry, your obvious partisanship as you lean right, is abysmal; now THAT is politicking & you got caught.
For the record, I had no problem when Bush Senior did a similar thing.

[janejoad]

This is precisely why our educational system needs to be overhauled and federally regulated. These local government officials, from the governor to the school board, should not in effect have the power to manipulate curriculum,the library system or any system funded by the taxpayers. I want ALL American children to have access to knowledge, I want All of them to be as equally informed as eachother. Equality in education fosters competition. We cannot have a nation of dunces to carry us through the 21st century. We have to stop underminig educators and allow our kids to learn with out editing truth everytime we don't like the facts. This is so typical of the southern stategy to indeed have a "confederacy of dunces" to send up to the Hill and stifle knowledge, which is the only true freedom.