Introduction
Many states have established “early college course” systems, which allow high school students to take courses for college credit by means such as Advanced Placement courses, concurrent enrollment courses, dual-credit courses, and dual-enrollment courses. These courses mix attributes of courses for high school students and courses for undergraduates. Because these courses are intended for high school students, however, state policymakers have a right and a duty to regulate their content. The academic freedom protections that apply to regular undergraduate courses do not apply to these courses.
Our model College Credit Act applies the language from our model Partisanship out of Civics Act that prohibits the inculcation of discriminatory ideologies (Section B). It then applies transparency requirements from our Academic Transparency Act (Section C). The College Credit Act finally requires each institution of higher education that receives state funding to designate an administrator to be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the law (Section B and Section C).
We recommend the states adopt this law both because it is good in itself and because it will forestall the higher education’s radical establishment from using early college course systems to affect the education of high school students.
Model Legislative Text
The {Board of Regents} of the {State} public university system, and each institution of higher education that receives state funding, shall develop and adopt a credit eligibility requirements policy that states, at least, the following:
Section A
- An “early college course” means Advanced Placement courses, concurrent enrollment courses, dual-credit courses, dual-enrollment courses, early college courses, and all other such courses that allow high school students to take courses for college credit.
Section B
- No institution of higher education that receives state funding shall deem eligible for college credit an early college course that approves for use, makes use of, or carries out, standards, curricula, lesson plans, textbooks, instructional materials, or instructional practices that serve to inculcate the following concepts:
A. one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
B. an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
C. an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race;
D. members of one race cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race;
E. an individual’s moral standing or worth is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex;
F. an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
G. any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex;
H. meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a members of a particular race to oppress members of another race;
I. that the advent of slavery in the territory that is now the United States constituted the true founding of the United States;
J. or that, with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.
2. Each institution of higher education that receives state funding shall designate an administrator to be responsible for ensuring the implementation of this section.
Section C
- Each public school and charter school that offers early college classes shall make available to the public on the institution’s Internet all their early college classes’ standards, curricula, lesson plans, textbooks, instructional materials, and instructional practices.
- The information required by Subsection (1) must be:
A. accessible from the institution’s Internet website home page by use of not more than three links;
B. searchable by keywords and phrases;
C. and accessible to the public without requiring registration or use of a user name, a password, or another user identification.
3. Each public school and charter school that offers early college classes must send this information to every administrator designated in Section (B), Subsection (2).
4. Each public school and charter school shall designate an administrator to be responsible for ensuring the implementation of this section.
Section D
If any provision of this chapter, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this chapter and the application of its provisions to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.
The National Association of Scholars, in consultation with other supporters and friends of the Civics Alliance, drafted these model bills to translate into legislative language the principles in the Civics Alliance’s Civics Curriculum Statement & Open Letter. Just as these bills have been drafted with the expectation that different states will modify them as they see fit, they also have been drafted with the expectation that not every supporter of the Civics Alliance will endorse these bills or every part of them. Individual Civics Alliance signatories and supporters should not be assumed to have endorsed these bills, unless they say so explicitly.