Tag Archives: American Birthright

Freedom From Religion Foundation weighs in on the American Birthright Standard

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) published this letter, offering its interpretation of the American Birthright Standard. Here’s a quote from that:

FFRF is strongly urging the board to reject the adoption of American Birthright standards and uphold its duty to provide standards grounded in current scholarship, reflect best practices in social studies education and be inclusive for all student backgrounds and ability levels, as recommended by experts such as the National Council for the Social Studies.

“Public schools have a duty to ensure that instructional materials do not promote a particular religious viewpoint,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line writes.

Social studies standards that falsely teach that Christian history and Christian traditions are inherently American and/or that religion makes up the fabric of ethics and morality (under the guise of secular history and moral philosophy) blatantly promote Christianity and violate the rights of district students and parents.

DAVIS: Buying the Birthright: A Woodland Park Investigation

Why are national groups and right-wing billionaires so involved in the transformation of the Woodland Park School District? Because the Woodland Park School District is where the opportunity to transform all public education first presented itself. And now that they have found a foothold in the Woodland Park district, they’re proclaiming it to be a model for the nation.

Their plans do not end in Woodland Park — the Bradley and Scaife Foundations are not known for limiting the scale of their ambitions — but they started there, and they started there because the conditions were right. 
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/07/davis-buying-the-birthright-a-woodland-park-investigation/55055/

DAVIS: American Birthright: A Woodland Park Investigation

For the past month, I have been investigating a concerted effort by national groups to use the Woodland Park School District as the testing ground for a radical new right-wing approach to public schools, where the goal is no longer to strangle the system and cut taxes, but to seize the system and train up conservative voters. While much has been reported about what is happening in WPSD, little has been documented about why it is happening in Woodland Park specifically, or who is ultimately behind it. 

The Woodland Park school board’s first-in-the-nation decision to adopt the American Birthright standards brings us closer to answers for those questions.
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/07/davis-american-birthright-a-woodland-park-investigation/54661/

How conservatives transformed the Woodland Park, CO, school district

The leaders of the Woodland Park School District are enacting an experiment in conservative governance in the middle of a state controlled by Democrats, with little in the way so far to slow them down. The school board’s decisions have won some praise in heavily Republican Teller County, but opposition is growing, including from conservative Christians and lifelong GOP voters who say the board has made too many ill-advised decisions and lacks transparency. 
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

This article was written by NBC reporter Tyler Kingkade. Tyler spent a few days in Woodland Park last month talking to people and learning about the situation here. I think he did a really good job of telling this story in his own words in this article, instead of just repeating what people tell him…the work he put in to listening and learning really shows.

3/12/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

  • Not yet published on this website as we’re getting more details:
    • Ken Witt fired Logan (IT) and Morgan (payroll) from district staff, saying their positions were no longer needed.
    • With Logan gone, some CORA requests are already overdue (beyond the max of 10 days); the Woodland Parks school district is in noncompliance with Colorado Open Records law.
    • Also Friday, we received confirmation that a senior staff member of the district admin staff submitted their resignation Friday, we believe in connection to those two firings. We’re under the impression not all staff have been informed of this decision yet, so we’re withholding details for now.
  • Episode 2 of the locally produced podcast ‘Voices of Reason’ is out, check it out here.
  • The board had their regular monthly board meeting on the 8th
    • A summary of the meeting can be read here.
    • The board struggled a bit with policy changes…they were going to do a second reading on GP-5 and approve it, but instead chose to revise it further, necessitating a second reading and vote to be held in the next meeting instead. This policy change is to help remove any focus on non-academic details, removing the emphasis on things like counselors and mental health programs.
    • Video of the public comments from the meeting can be viewed here.
  • We provided an update on the Curriculum Review status in the district driven by adoption of the American Birthright standards.
  • Efforts by the Board and Ken Witt to restrict freedom of speech in the district were summarized in this post.
  • We reviewed the numbers behind Witt’s claim that the Middle School is overcrowded and thus the sixth graders need to move out.

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Wednesday will be a meeting for parents and students about the Career Start program. There’s been concern that the district’s rejection of any grant money will impact that, but what we’ve heard suggests this program is safe as it’s state funds, not grants. We’ll find out more Wednesday.
  • No board meeting is scheduled for this week.

District statement on NCAA class eligibility

A parent in the district recently noticed that because of the district’s adoption of the American Birthright standards, some classes at the high school no longer met NCAA eligibility requirements. The district’s response is below, in an email sent to parents today. In summary, they’ll be submitting the new class info for review this summer, and also note the timeline for that review is uncertain. It doesn’t sound like parents will get an answer in time to decide whether to enroll their student here or elsewhere for this next school year, though it’s expected there will be online classes offered that would meet NCAA requirements.

Yet another example of the avoidable chaos that this school board and interim superintendent seem to embrace.

Conservative program meets inclusive standards in this Colorado school district – Colorado Newsline

More about Woodland Park’s implementation of the American Birthright standards. This is mostly information we’ve already posted here in other articles, but one new bit of information that’s come to light is that many classes no longer have NCAA approval…students that need this eligibility will, we believe, have other course options available to them, them just need to be careful when making class decisions and might be stuck with an online-only class.
— Read on coloradonewsline.com/2023/02/16/conservative-program-meets-inclusive-standards-in-this-colorado-school-district/

Enforcement of Social Studies standards in Colorado

Unless you’re new to this website, you already know that the Woodland Park school board adopted the American Birthright standard for social studies last month. Colorado Public Radio published a great article about this, and talked about how the state board of education rejected these standards last fall. These standards have already been used to censor one class, so naturally parents are concerned.

So, what’s a concerned parent to do? Well the state mandates that each district implement standards that meet or exceed the state standards.

Surely the American Birthright standard, which the state already rejected, wouldn’t meet these criteria?

I contacted the Colorado Department of Education. They in turn reached out to the Woodland Park school district about this issue, and received this reply:

So, they’ll be taking a non-compliant standard, picking and choosing sections to ensure compliance? On the surface this sounds bad but possibly compliant. But in the end, who will judge whether the district has pulled off this tightrope act? Turns out the answer is…the district themselves. The state does not review districts to actually ensure they’re complying with the state standards! This is what the Colorado Department of Education told me:

So there you have it.

Is there no government body overseeing our school board? Hey, what about the Colorado Association of School Boards! Sounds promising, right? Umm…no:

Ken Witt uses American Birthright standard to censor class

As previously discussed here and elsewhere, The Woodland Park school district recently removed the book, “Between the World and Me” from the high school election course, “Civil Disobedience.”

This action was taken after a resident, Jameson Dion, filed a complaint about this material on January 7. The district has a very clear policy for review of instructional material, policy KEC, and did not follow it in this case. Rather than form an appropriate review committee, Witt made a unilateral decision (which you can read here) to remove the book from the class on January 22.

So this is what we’ve come to. A single man making the decisions of what should and should not be used by teachers as instructional materials in class, disregarding policy and debate.