Eric Schmitt’s latest target: student surveys in Kansas City area and across Missouri
Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Wednesday announced his office is investigating two Kansas City area school districts for allegedly asking students to fill out surveys about their parents’ political beliefs.
Lee’s Summit R-7 School District and Park Hill School District are among seven Missouri school districts that Schmitt says used student surveys to “ask students personal and otherwise unnecessary questions about their parents’ political views and income, and questions about their sexuality, as well as racially motivated or leading questions,” according to a statement.
While Schmitt trumpeted the investigations as an effort to “get to the bottom of these surveys” and increase parents’ roles in their children’s education, others see yet another example of the attorney general targeting schools for political reasons.
“It’s maddening, its frustrating,” said Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat.
“Our school districts are using tax dollars that are going to pay attorney fees instead of educating our students,” she said. “I see these subpoenas as the latest attempt to appeal to a hyper vocal base.”
Sample surveys on the Lee’s Summit website do not include questions about students’ parents or their beliefs.
Schmitt’s announcement comes as he continues his campaign in the Republican primary for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat. He has largely centered his campaign on highly-publicized lawsuits that push back against policies of the federal government and against school districts for enacting COVID-19 mask mandates.
“Subjecting students to personal, invasive surveys created by third-party consultants potentially without parents’ consent is ridiculous and does nothing to further our children’s education,” Schmitt said in a statement.
The investigation will determine whether the surveys allegedly used by the school districts violated state or federal law. The surveys were created by third-party companies like Panorama Education Inc. and Project Wayfinder Inc., according to the statement.
Lee’s Summit spokeswoman Katy Bergen said that the district uses Panorama surveys to “incorporate student voice in our approach to supporting students’ needs, particularly when it comes to feeling a sense of belonging and connection at school.”
The district seeks feedback through the surveys multiple times throughout the year from students in third through 12th grades. The surveys are aimed at evaluating how safe students feel at school, and how connected they feel to their peers and teachers. They also ask students how they feel about classes and their learning in school, as well as social and emotional skills, officials say.
Sample surveys posted on the district website show that they mostly ask students about their emotions while at school and how well they feel they are performing in classes, as well as if they worry about bullying or violence.
For middle and high schoolers, a sample survey shows that students are asked more specific questions about equity in classrooms, including questions like: “How often do teachers encourage you to learn about people from different races, ethnicities, or cultures?” and “At your school, how often are you encouraged to think more deeply about race-related topics?”
Bergen said in an email that “implementing processes to include student voice/feedback in decisions related to the culture and climate of our schools and promoting student/staff wellness are key components of our district’s strategic plan. Our district Equity Plan is also foundationally grounded in building dignity and belonging for all young people and adults in our school community.”
Lee’s Summit and other Kansas City area districts have been working on beefing up diversity and equity initiatives, to better serve all students within their systems. That has included engaging the community, parents and students.
That work, though, has been met with criticism from some parents over the past school year, who have brought up concerns over hot-button national topics like Critical Race Theory — a college-level academic concept that is not taught in K-12 schools.
On its district website, Lee’s Summit officials emphasize that Panorama is “not affiliated with any particular academic or legal philosophy, including critical race theory (CRT). Panorama is not connected to CRT and it is not a tool for teaching CRT.”
Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat, said Schmitt was attacking schools instead of helping them to prop up his Senate campaign.
“They’ve been really cracking down on CRT,” she said. “But it’s not Black history. This is American history. The more they try to stifle that, the more we’re going to repeat that.”
A Park Hill school district spokesperson did not immediately return The Star’s request for comment.
In addition to the two Kansas City area school districts, Schmitt also subpoenaed the Mehlville, Webster Groves, Jefferson City, Springfield and Neosho school districts.
Growing frustration over lawsuits
The Attorney General’s Office also announced Wednesday it created an online portal that compiles all records requests the office has sent to Missouri school districts. Schmitt touted the portal as an “effort to increase transparency in our schools.”
Earlier this year, as Missouri schools struggled to stay open amid the surging Omicron variant, Schmitt filed lawsuits against dozens of school districts for enacting mask mandates. He argued that the mask rules were “arbitrary and capricious” — although many viewed the suits as politically motivated.
In the months after, as the number of COVID-19 cases fell rapidly across the state, most of the school districts filed motions to dismiss the lawsuits.
Schmitt’s decision to use his office to target schools has caused irritation among Missouri legislators, including members of his own party. The GOP-controlled General Assembly last month agreed to cut from the state budget a $500,000 request from Schmitt’s office.
Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican, requested the cut in April in response to Schmitt’s lawsuits. Both legislative chambers, with big Republican majorities, finalized the cut in May.
“As the Senate wisely put it, we probably shouldn’t be giving (Schmitt) that money when he seems to be using it to sue basically everybody in Missouri for campaign purposes,” Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat, said last month.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 4:29 PM.
