INDIANAPOLIS – A new dashboard unveiled Tuesday by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office makes public more than two dozen allegations of “potentially inappropriate materials” in Hoosier schools, like critical race theory materials and gender identity policies.
But numerous local officials told the Indiana Capital Chronicle they weren’t made aware of the complaints and contend the allegations were not properly vetted before the portal went live.
Attorney General Todd Rokita referred to “Eyes on Education” as a transparency tool that intends to “empower parents to further engage in their children’s education” and provide “real examples of indoctrination.”
The portal accepts submissions about K-12 classrooms, colleges, universities, and “other affiliated Indiana academic entities.” But it is unclear how, or if, they are vetting the accuracy of the allegations.
As of Tuesday afternoon, “Eyes on Education” listed complaints lodged against 13 public K-12 school districts, as well as Indiana University’s School of Medicine.
Rokita said in a statement that the portal allows Hoosier parents to “view real examples of socialist indoctrination from classrooms across the state. Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks,” he continued, “NOT ideology that divides kids from their parents and normal society.”
Stacy Conrad, a spokesperson for Center Grove Schools said, “It is disappointing that the Attorney General would take screenshots of social media comments and other claims made without context and publish them without additional research or verification.
Anyone, not just parents, can fill out an “education transparency form” and submit it to the portal.
The attorney general’s office said it will “follow up” using investigative tools like public records requests on materials submitted to the portal that may violate Indiana law. Those findings are supposed to be published on the portal, as well.
But no such information has been made available yet, and at least twelve school districts named in the portal indicated to the Capital Chronicle on Tuesday they were unaware of the portal postings and had not been contacted by the attorney general’s office.
Rokita’s office said the new portal continues the parental empowerment mission.
“We not only want to help empower parents,” Rokita said. “We also want to help empower excellent educators. In some cases, district bureaucrats suppress the conscientious efforts of caring and well-qualified teachers. Our portal is a place where educators, too, can submit examples of materials they find objectionable.”
Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said “there are a lot of issues” with the portal and that it is outside of the attorney general’s purview. He emphasized that Rokita is “causing enormous problems for people and is interfering with the normal political process.” DeLaney stated Rokita’s new portal uses state resources and creates questions concerning libel and defamation. “He is the attorney general. He is not the governor, and he is not the Secretary of Education,” he said. “Yeah, he’s poaching on their territory.”
Read the entire story by Casey Smith of the Indiana Capital Chronicle here.
