Future Of Colo. Ed Board’s AP History Plan Muddy After Heated Meeting

Protesting students Adriana Gonzales, right, and Andrea Colmenero march against a Jefferson County School Board proposal to emphasize patriotism and downplay civil unrest in the teaching of U.S. history, near their s... Protesting students Adriana Gonzales, right, and Andrea Colmenero march against a Jefferson County School Board proposal to emphasize patriotism and downplay civil unrest in the teaching of U.S. history, near their school, Jefferson High, in the Denver suburb of Edgewater, Monday, Sept. 29, 2014. The Jefferson County School District says classes had to be canceled at Golden and Jefferson high schools on Monday because so many teachers called in sick. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) MORE LESS
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The fate of the Jefferson County, Colo. school board’s disputed plan to review the AP U.S. History curriculum appears up in the air after a contentious meeting Thursday night that drew many angry students and parents.

The Jefferson County Board of Education voted 3-2 in favor of a compromise plan that would incorporate students, teachers and other community members into a curriculum review committee, according to Denver TV station KUSA. The board’s conservative majority voted over the objections of its other two members, who wanted more time to study the compromise proposal.

A Jefferson County Public Schools official told KUSA that the curriculum review committee approved Thursday night was not tasked with reviewing the AP History course at this point.

Text of the disputed original proposal that called for the creation of a curriculum board to ensure that course materials encouraged “patriotism” and didn’t condone “civil disorder” had been stripped before Thursday’s meeting. That language sparked two weeks of protests and walk-outs among students and teachers who felt that the proposed review, spurred on by conservatives who saw the AP History curriculum as “radically revisionist,” amounted to censorship.

It remains unclear after Thursday’s vote whether and when a review committee will tackle the AP History curriculum.

The Denver Post reported that the adoption of the new compromise measure “effectively scuttled” the proposed curriculum review committee that had drawn so much ire from the Jefferson County schools community.

Local TV station KMGH, however, reported that the disputed proposal “passed despite fierce opposition” from the minority of the board.

Still, the compromise plan did little to placate outraged students, teachers and parents. Opponents of the plan booed the vote and chanted “Recall! Recall!” at the board, according to KMGH.

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Notable Replies

  1. Playing for time. Keep an eye on WHICH “students, teachers, and other community members” get on that advisory committee.

  2. “…The board’s conservative majority voted over the objections…”

    Of everybody. It’s what conservatism is all about.

  3. Avatar for fgs fgs says:

    If you tore something in your knee, which surgeon would you pick: a guy who wants to fillet the whole joint open because that’s how they did it 40 years ago when he was a student, or someone who keeps up with the times and uses the best available, modern technique?

    The question answers itself, and nobody would think to consult a politician.

  4. Avatar for buford buford says:

    this board is brought to you by Koch Industries…they want to rewrite history…plain and simple…but, but, the kids and faculty know they have been bamboozled in the last election…and I don’t think this is over yet…we need to really OUT the koch boys for who and what they are…they have set out to destroy this nation, one step at a time, and they are being successful…

  5. Avatar for fgs fgs says:

    Historically speaking, if I were given the choice between England’s petty criminals, and the Puritans, I’d have to say that Australia got the long end of the stick.

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