Currently, the Board of Education's response to the demand to put academic freedom in the contract language is to say “We have it as policy, and it does not need to be in the contract. It has nothing to do with working conditions.” 

Our concerns are as follows:

• Policy is flimsy and easily removed if there is pressure from federal government
• Contract language secures it as a right and has staying power beyond who is in leadership with actionable consequences if violated
• Denying us this as a contractual right sends the message that they do not trust us as educators to know how to serve our students
•  Denying us this as a contractual right and dismissing it as irrelevant to the working conditions of teachers sends the message to students that academic freedom is not a value worth fighting for
•  Academic freedom is essential to our working conditions in that it creates the sense of institutional safety that these topics are not taboo and ensures that we would not face repercussion or retribution by discussing them

Here is what the union would like to put in the contract:

Academic Freedom, protections for books, content, hands-off teaching content

• Educators have the right to supplement curriculum according to professional judgment, inclusive, but not limited to, CT Learning Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, state mandates on Black& Latino history, genocide and Holocaust study, Disability Rights Movement, LGBTQ contributions, culturally responsive teaching and learning
  standards, Native American history, and antiracist curriculum
• Administrator, parent, or student concerns about lesson content resolved through NHPS-NHFT committee established for this purpose 

If you support codifying academic freedom as a contractual right, please sign in this petition!