Washington, D.C. (March 22, 2007) – Under court order, the California State Board of Education (SBE) accepted comments and proposed changes to its textbook adoption process last week. The legal mandate resulted from the recent victory of the Hindu American Foundation's(HAF) lawsuit against the SBE. The foundation had held that illegal procedures were being used in the adoption of instructional materials, namely sixth grade social studies textbooks, for use in California public schools. Representing Hindu American parents in California, the foundation submitted to the SBE twenty-two ?comments? that would streamline the textbook adoption procedures and incorporate ?critical? protective measures requiring that the process be clear and transparent to members of the public. ?Last year Hindu parents were shut out of the textbook adoption process by the SBE implementing underground regulations and holding closed door meetings-subverting the public process,? said Suhag Shukla, Esq., legal counsel for the Hindu American Foundation. ?Our legal victory has opened the door to not only Hindu parents, but all California parents who are entitled by law to have a voice in how their children are educated and we are taking advantage of that opening.? Among other demands, in its submission, HAF stipulated that experts retained by the SBE in future curriculum framework development and textbook adoptions have expertise in the specific subject area and be screened for potential conflicts of interest. Much of the current controversy began last year when for the sixth grade textbooks covering Hinduism, the SBE retained a professor of linguistics well known for his antagonism towards Hindu Americans. The foundation also demanded that the public be given opportunities to influence and offer meaningful input and perspectives during the various stages of curriculum development and textbook adoption-something Shukla says was denied to Hindu Americans previously. ?It is our hope that the SBE will seriously consider HAF'srecommendations-they stem from direct experience of a system that had become unresponsive to the constituency that it serves,? said Shukla. ?The SBE must work proactively with the public in order to adopt curricula and textbooks that portray accurately and equitably the diversity of American society.? The full recommendations of HAF can be viewed at www.hafsite.org/pdf/HAFSBE.pdf. (FOC)
