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The GOP opened a new front in its war on schools this month when Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita launched an online portal for people to report “objectionable curricula, policies, or programs” in schools across the state.
Launched in early February, Rokita’s “Eyes on Education” website allows people to “submit and view real examples of socialist indoctrination from classrooms,” he said in a February press release. According to the website, Rokita’s office will follow up on submissions “that may violate Indiana law using our investigative tools, including public records requests.”
According to the website, Rokita’s office will follow up on submissions ‘that may violate Indiana law using our investigative tools, including public records requests.’
The portal features selected documents that Rokita’s office claims concerned citizens have submitted, including presentations about gender identity, privilege, and race. Importantly, as the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported, several of the examples listed were out of date. The website also does not make clear how it verifies submissions, or who is responsible for doing so.
Rokita, however, pushed back on the Chronicle’s reporting in a confounding statement posted on X. “Everything on our website is accurate,” he said, but added that even if the examples on the portal are outdated, “it’s important for parents to see what the adults in their child’s school are capable of.”
Educators in Indiana have, predictably, strongly opposed the website. The Hamilton Southeastern Education Association, a teachers union, called it “another blatant attack on public educators,” and said the portal endangers teachers and “breeds misplaced mistrust” in them.
Rokita’s new website is not unlike Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s now-defunct January 2022 “tip line” for parents to snitch on educators. As my MSNBC colleague Ja'han Jones detailed, Youngkin’s campaign backfired spectacularly and the initiative was quietly sunsetted months later.
Conservatives have become laser-focused on attacking public schools in recent years, stoking fears about so-called “woke ideologies” in classrooms, enacting sweeping book bans, and even withholding funding from schools in order to force administrators to cut diversity efforts.
The right’s war on public education has also put a target on teachers’ backs, and in many states driven educators from the profession altogether. Rokita’s targeting of schools will only exacerbate Indiana’s already dire teacher shortage and further burden teachers, whose average starting salary is nearly $10,000 less than the state’s minimum living wage, according to a 2023 National Education Association report.