Sep 5, 2009 8:54 am US/Eastern
Dade Schools Give In To Conservatives On Speech
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting on health insurance Aug. 15, 2009, at Central High School in Grand Junction, Colo.
Mandel Ngan/Getty Images
The Miami-Dade School District has given in to pressure from a small, but vocal group of parents and will allow students to opt-out of watching a speech President Barack Obama will give to school children encouraging them to get good grades, work hard, and stay in school. The "controversy" over the speech was built-up during the past week by Conservative media outlets and the head of the GOP in Florida, Jim Greer.
Teachers in Miami-Dade County who want to show the speech will have to broadcast a live stream from the White House website, according to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald. An alternate plan for the students whose parents say they don't want their children to hear the speech from a sitting president hasn't been decided upon.
Broward County Schools Superintendent Jim Notter made the decision on Thursday to have all students watch the President's brief remarks. "I know this is a quality teachable moment that we need to capture for our students," Notter said.
Parents in Miami-Dade will receive an automated phone call over the weekend asking them to send a note to school Tuesday if they don't want their child to watch the speech.
The overtly partisan attacks from Conseravtives that led many parents to call for their children to be taken out of class became a "controversy" in Florida this past week when Greer said he was "Appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."
Greer also said in his statement that Obama's intent in speaking to the children was to justify his plans for "government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs."
President Obama's address on Tuesday isn't the first one to be given to students by a sitting President. President George H.W. Bush gave a speech to students asking them to work hard and stay off of drugs. Democrat Richard Gephardt spoke out against the speech, but there wasn't a mass hysteria about it like the kind that has been stirred up for Obama's speech.
President Reagan gave a speech to students in 1988 that actually included policy discussions, which President Obama's speech isn't going to highlight.
Much of the trumped-up controversy comes from a passage in the questions given to teachers that asked them, "What can you do to help President Obama?" The question is similar to the one given by former President George W. Bush who asked for students to help out America's image abroad by raising money for the children in Afghanistan.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report)
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