Parental Controls, Or Parental Patrols?

More about that misbegotten proposal to 'create local review boards of five to 15 parents who would have the authority to review and make recommendations on elementary school library and classroom materials before they could be purchased. Under the law, introduced May 11, states that failed to put the parental panels in place would lose all federal education funding.'
See ALA's statement on the legislation.

Christopher Harris, on his Infomancy blog explains that "This bill presumes that the "highly qualified" teachers and librarians mandated under NCLB are, in fact, incompetent. It assumes, as with filtering software discussed before, that students are incapable of making decisions on their own. This creates an environment where information is driven underground. Information literacy cannot be learned in a controlled environment. Students learn to evaluate the crush of information sources they will face in the world only by encountering examples of good and bad."

Thanks to Alice in Infoland (More voices of reason are showing up my my listservs!) for this excellent information.