After 10 years in the Pennsylvania state House, Rep. Will Tallman is calling it quits, but don’t expect him to go quietly. Last week, the proud NRA member and otherwise run-of-the-mill Republican introduced a ridiculous piece of legislation that would strictly regulate what teachers could discuss in classrooms, and that experts deem extremely unlikely to withstand scrutiny in the courts, should it miraculously and improbably find its way onto state lawbooks.
Tallman sent a memo to the 203-member state House seeking support for a bill he dubbed the “Teacher Code of Ethics,” which legal experts questioned as unconstitutional overreach.
[...]
(I)f the Adams County Republican has his way, he will go out with the passage of a monumental bill that would re-write free speech rules in schools by banning discussions centered around modern-day civics, politics and science in classrooms.
Before pursuing what became a decade-long tenure in the Pennsylvania Statehouse, Tallman, who serves a pocket of Pennsylvania southwest of Harrisburg, served multiple terms on his local school board, as well as sitting on the Pennsylvania School Boards Association’s legislative council—so it would seem that ruining schools is familiar territory for him.
The ridiculous proposal doesn’t appear to just suppress free speech in the classroom—it would also severely reduce educators’ ability to discuss relevant current events that pique students’ interest, as well as limit the scope of discussions in classes that explore political functions and issues, such as social studies, civics, or American government.
Tallman said his bill would forbid public school teachers from endorsing, supporting or opposing candidates or incumbents for local, state and federal offices while in the classroom. On the job, teachers could not discuss enacted or pending legislation, regulations, executive orders or court cases involving any level or branch of government.
Oddly, the dead-in-the-water memo also includes a very special protection for local military recruiters:
[Teachers] could not talk about activities “that hamper or impede” law enforcement actions or military recruiters on campus.
That’s a strangely specific bullet point, isn’t it? Wouldn’t want trusted adults to tell students about the potential ramifications of signing over their young lives to those armed forces representatives posted up in the cafeteria on pizza day, would we?
“Our K-12 school teachers should not be using their classroom time spent on political or ideological indoctrination,” Tallman said in his memo.
Teachers found in violation of Tallman’s law-that-will-never-be could face suspension and/or revocation of their state teacher’s license.
Experts on the subject tell the Morning Call that the memo, called the “Teacher Code of Ethics,” is really effing unconstitutional.
“It runs roughshod over the cardinal principle of academic freedom,” said David Hudson, a professor at the Nashville School of Law in Tennessee and ombudsman for Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C. “In certain classes, political speech and frank discussion is necessary. I mean social studies class, contemporary issues — you need teachers talking about current events.”
[...]
Robert Richards, director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Penn State, (adds):
“In general, schools can control curriculum issues and when teachers are speaking in their classrooms, they are acting as agents of the school rather than for themselves. They are usually on safer ground when the speech directly relates to their subject matter. Speaking about legislation … in a social studies or history class may be particularly germane, so a blanket prohibition as such would be highly suspect, and courts would likely invalidate it if enforced against a teacher.”
Of course, if Tallman got his way, teachers wouldn’t even be able to talk about the laws that forbid them from talking about the laws, so constitutionality would become moot.
Tallman cited at least four other states that have similar laws on the books, yet when asked for the names of those states, he was incapable of naming even one. Additionally, Tallman insisted that he’d had “half a dozen to a dozen” complaints about teachers bringing politics into classrooms; some of the complaints had originated from his adult children and adult grandchildren. Considering that he has four grown kids— three who work as religious missionaries and one who’s in the military—it’s completely feasible that these complainants are all members of Tallman’s family. We’ll never know, because Tallman refused to clarify the complaints, nor would he name names.
Tallman, who enjoys both a 0 percent approval rating from Planned Parenthood and a 93 percent approval rating from the NRA, has made it clear that his plans for his final months in office are narrowly focused on the Keystone State’s educational system: he plans to introduce legislation that would outlaw strikes by teachers, and other reforms to completely overhaul the same state board of education on which he once served.