School Districts Must Stop Abusing Copyright to Prevent Access to Educational Materials
Arlington, VA | December 4, 2024 Parents around the country are discussing, often passionately, the appropriateness of their children’s instructional materials. Facts about what children are being taught in public schools are central to this debate. However, a growing number of school districts refuse to provide parents with curricula and other controversial in-class materials, claiming they are protected by copyright laws and thus shielded from disclosure under state and local transparency laws.
Today, the Right on Transparency coalition is releasing a new model policy urging state governments to secure parents’ access to public school curricular materials by affirming that those materials are public records and access to them is protected by federal and state law:
It does not violate copyright to use school materials for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research.” (17 U.S.C. § 107) Schools invoking copyright—all of which have lawyers giving them taxpayer-funded legal advice—ought to know this. Parents are not trying to profit from the work of authors and publishers; they are seeking information about their children’s education.
If a requester misuses copyrighted materials obtained under public-records laws, that requester risks penalties the same way as any other copyright offender. For instance, if a requester asks for a lesson and then assembles and sells it online, the publisher can sue. Mere fear that a requester may misuse copyrighted documents is not an excuse for overriding public-records laws, disregarding the importance of transparency, and dismissing parental rights.
The policy states that all learning materials shall be open for public inspection and duplication, and that no public official shall enter into a contract with a third party that prohibits the disclosure of such material. Learning materials subject to public disclosure include curriculum, syllabi, instructional materials, assignments, presentations, textbooks, books, video and audio recordings, contracts with third parties, but do not include tests or other assessments.
Read the full model policy.
Endorsements:
- AFP Foundation
- Better Cities Project
- Goldwater Institute
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy
- Mountain States Policy Center
- National Taxpayers Union
- Parents Defending Education
- Southeastern Legal Foundation
- Texas Public Policy Foundation
If you are a member of the media looking to talk to a transparency expert or if your organization is interested in joining the coalition, please contact:
Kevin Schmidt, Americans for Prosperity Foundation at kschmidt@afphq.org
