Idaho School Boards Association President-elect Jason Knopp withdrew from the “Task Force to Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education” Friday, a week after the committee’s first meeting.
Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin organized the committee to root out alleged leftist indoctrination from Idaho public schools.
In a prepared statement to Idaho Ed News, the Melba School Board trustee reproached the task force’s composition and the way it carried out its inaugural meeting last week.
“Some of the comments made by committee members towards the end of the last meeting made it clear that the lack of education professionals on the committee would leave its members to make under-informed, disparaging statements about the thousands of professionals who take very seriously their responsibility of educating all of Idaho’s schoolchildren, including those in marginalized communities,” Knopp wrote.
Though current and former school administrators and a school board trustee remain on the task force, Knopp’s exit means the committee’s final three meetings will happen without representation from the ISBA, State Board of Education or State Department of Education.
Knopp said the “context and purpose of the committee prompted further misgivings.” In leaving the task force, he wrote that its aim “seems to have more to do with partisan campaigning than it does with approaching a sensitive topic with respect, care, and the involvement of all voices at the table.”
The task force’s next meeting, set to focus on K-12 schools, will be June 24.
