HB2542 - 522R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 15, chapter 1, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 15-102.01, to read:

START_STATUTE15-102.01. Instructional materials; website posting; library access; definitions

A. Notwithstanding any other law, Public schools shall ensure instructional transparency in all areas of study by posting the following on the website of the school district, school or charter school, listed by grade level and subject area:

1. Citations for all paper‑based textbooks and workbooks that are assigned to students in the school district or charter school and citations for and website links to all digital textbooks and workbooks that are assigned to students in the school district or charter school.

2. Citations for all additional paper‑based reading materials that are assigned to students in the school district or charter school, including novels, short stories, poems, magazines and informational pieces, and citations for and website links to all additional digital reading materials that are assigned to students in the school district or charter school.

3. Citations for all nontext materials to which students in the school district or charter school are assigned or exposed, including motion pictures, television shows, videos, electronic tutorials and electronic games.

4. For each middle school, junior high school and high school class that is organized by subject discipline, the course syllabus, including citations and content outlines.

5. Assignments in elementary schools that require students to produce projects or compositions.

B. For all paper-based instructional materials that are not available in digital form or that cannot be posted on the website of the school district or charter school due to copyright protections, the school district or charter school shall provide at least five copies of the instructional materials without charge to each public library and branch library located within the school district's geographic boundary or to the public library that is nearest to the charter school. Public libraries shall make these materials available to be checked out of the library and reviewed by any citizen of this state without charge, regardless of the citizen's address, and may not place any restriction on access to these instructional materials. A citizen of this state may check out instructional materials for the same length of time the library permits patrons to check out fiction and nonfiction books.

C. Public schools and persons employed at public schools may not prohibit or restrict the access by any citizen of this state, through a password or by any other means, to any of the information and instructional materials that are required to be provided pursuant to this section. School districts and charter schools may not enter into contracts or purchase any instructional materials or assessments that restrict access to those instructional materials in any way by any citizen of this state.

D. Each school district, school and charter school shall indicate on its website where parents and citizens of this state can obtain copies of printed books and other paper-based instructional materials for checkout and review and shall encourage citizens to examine instructional materials. The website shall allow Parents and citizens to post comments on the instructional materials on the portion of the website that is reserved for comments on instructional materials and methods.

E. Each school district, school and charter school shall do both of the following:

1. Initially post the information required by this section on its website not later than two hundred days after the effective date of this section.

2. Update the instructional materials portion of its website whenever changes occur in curricula, instructional materials, instructional practices, standards, assessments, professional development or data collection.

F. A school district that uses instructional content, instructional methods and assessments that are uniform or standardized for specific grades or courses in each school that is a part of the school district may satisfy the posting requirements of this section by posting that information for all district schools in a single location on the school district's website.

G. If a school that is part of a school district does not have a website, that school's information that is required to be posted by this section shall be posted on the school district's website.

H. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Areas of study" includes vocational education, literature, rhetoric, grammar, history, civics, free-market economics, science, mathematics, philosophy, religion, sex education, art, music, computer technology, family and consumer science and other areas of study that are currently offered in schools.

2. "Citation" means an accurate summary of a work's title, author, publisher, edition or volume, and international standard book number or digital object identifier and the year in which the work was published.

3. "Instructional materials" includes paper‑based or digital textbooks, workbooks, reading materials, nontext materials, motion pictures, television shows, videos, software, electronic tutorials, electronic games, curricula, syllabi, standards, instructional methods, assignments, assessments, professional development materials, data collection instruments and any other materials that are provided to or used by students in the classroom, whether stored locally, on the Internet or on local or remote servers or streamed or projected through any electronic device or devices. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Legislative findings and declarations

The legislature finds and declares that:

1. All Arizona citizens have a right to and should be able to review instructional materials and activities used in government-funded education.

2. The primary responsibility for educating children rests with Arizona citizens who are parents and who may lend, temporarily, some of that responsibility to public education. Nonetheless, parents who are Arizona citizens retain the ultimate responsibility for what children learn. In order to exercise this responsibility, parents must know the instructional content and methods to which their children are exposed in public education.

3. Arizona citizens have a right to review instructional materials and activities to ensure that they do not contain teachings or classes that are prohibited by section 15‑112, Arizona Revised Statutes.

4. Arizona citizens have a right to review instructional materials and activities to ensure that they satisfy the preference for childbirth and adoption prescribed in section 15‑115, Arizona Revised Statutes.

5. The following qualities of character have been embedded in public education since the beginning of this country, and the goals of public education are enhanced when these qualities permeate every subject of the curriculum:

(a) Attentiveness.

(b) Caring.

(d) Compassion.

(e) Diligence.

(f) Discernment.

(g) Forgiveness.

(h) Generosity.

(i) Gratefulness.

(j) Initiative.

(k) Orderliness.

(l) Respect.

(m) Responsibility.

(n) Sincerity.

(o) Trustworthiness.

(p) Virtue.

(q) Wisdom.

6. The ultimate goal for the Arizona public education system is to facilitate student acquisition of knowledge that is necessary:

(a) For responsible citizenship in the United States representative republic that holds to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and to the principle that governing legitimacy is derived from consent of the governed.

(b) For military service.

7. Central to students' acquisition of knowledge is learning the sources of liberty, how liberty became established in America and what is required of individuals to sustain liberty, as well as the limited government structure that is essential for liberty's sustenance. Public education should not entail indoctrination or a political agenda. To that end, the outcomes of nonrepresentative republic regimes should be contrasted with America's representative republic and liberty.

8. Good government requires transparency, and a representative republic cannot sustain liberty without citizens who possess knowledge of all aspects of government entities, including taxpayer-funded education.

9. Unfettered access to instructional materials and methods by Arizona citizens is necessary to ensure that schooling adheres to the laws of this state and to halt instructional policies and practices that are designed to mold students into dependent and manipulable adults.