District to snub Obama speech

LITTLE ROCK — President Barack Obama plans to deliver an address to the nation's schoolchildren Tuesday about the importance of working hard and taking responsibility for their learning, but at least one Arkansas school district has decided to tune him out.

The Cabot School District won't show the speech, said Robert Martin, director of student services.

Parents had called with concerns, he said, adding, "We're not getting involved in any type of a political thing."

Martin said the district didn't want to be questioned about the politics of showing the speech and decided to follow a normal instructional day.

DVDs of the speech or a Web link will be made available at the school office to parents who want it, according to a statement from the 9,500-student district.

Conservative activists and bloggers have criticized Obama's speech as an attempt to indoctrinate the young. School districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls, according to The Associated Press. One conservative talk-show host, Tammy Bruce, twittered with the suggestion for parents to keep their children home from school that day, according to The New Republic's Web site.

Some districts in Texas, Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech, according to the AP.

In Florida, GOP Chairman Jim Greer released a statement that he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."

White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom told the AP that "I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this. ... It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously."

A letter sent by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan encourages schools to let pupils watch, but doesn't require it.

The 11 a.m. CDT address, aimed at all ages, will be streamed from the White House Web site and broadcast on C-SPAN, and is scheduled to last 15-20 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site.

Little Rock School District spokesman Tiffany Hoffman said the district will broadcast the speech on the district television station, but will leave the decision to each individual principal about whether to allow their students to watch it.

Parents opposed to the speech have called, Hoffman said, which factored into the decision.

"We want to take into account the concerns of citizens," said Hoffman, who said the 25,721-student district also recognized the speech's "educational impact."

Asked if parents who wanted their children to watch Obama had called to voice their support, Hoffman said, "It would be nice to hear both sides, but that's not the way it usually happens."

Jack Crumbly, superintendent of the 752-student Earle School District in eastern Arkansas, said he hasn't received any calls from parents and plans to leave it up to individual teachers to decide if their students should watch Obama.

Crumbly, who is also a Democratic state senator, said he thought high school classes, especially in government and history, might be interested in viewing the speech.

The state Department of Education hasn't taken a position, said spokesman Julie Thompson.

"I think it's up to the schools. We're not encouraging or discouraging them," she said.

No school districts have called for guidance, Thompson said, but one "distraught" grandmother called to voice her opposition.

President George H.W. Bush made a similar address in 1991 that was criticized by some Democrats as making the event into a campaign commercial.

The original lesson plan created by the Obama administration included suggestions that students write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. On Wednesday, a revised plan said students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their shortterm and long-term educational goals."