President Obama's speech to students next week may be a "teachable moment," as some educators see it, but it will not be a command performance. A combination of scheduling, academic priorities and sheer bandwidth will keep the president out of many Southern California classrooms when he goes on the air Tuesday.
"We're an academic institution, and our responsibility is to cover specific content standards," said James Stratton, superintendent of schools for La Canada Unified School District, where the school year got off to a late and rocky start because of the nearby wildfires. In his district, he said, the speech will be shown only in those classes where it "has any relation to the California content standards for that particular class."
That's a tough bar for any politician to hurdle.
Most Southern California districts seem to be at least a little more enthusiastic about the speech, which the White House has said will focus on the need for students to take personal responsibility for their education. But that doesn't mean their students will necessarily see it.
Most Los Angeles Unified students will miss the speech unless they watch it at home: The academic year doesn't begin until Wednesday in the majority of district schools, so only the 87 that are on a year-round schedule will have the opportunity to show it. One of them, Commonwealth Avenue Elementary, will host U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller.
The speech will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday.
"We have hundreds of parents who are calling and saying, 'Can't you change it?' " said district spokeswoman Ellen Morgan. District officials have had to explain that they have no control over the president's schedule.
Obama's speech has raised hackles among conservatives, who see it as a way for the Democratic president to force-feed his political views to children. But Morgan said L.A. Unified headquarters has received only two calls from parents who were irate about the speech.
Commonwealth Avenue Elementary Ken Lopez-Maddox, a former Republican assemblyman who is a school board trustee for the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, said he has no problem with the president addressing students and schools.
"To the degree he's emphasizing education, I think it's great," he said.
The district issued a news release saying it was not "encouraging nor discouraging classroom viewing," and urging parents who do not want their children to watch the speech to contact school principals.
