The Daily Caller News Foundation discovered this in January, when it requested records related to the sometimes highly graphic lessons taught to children about gender and sexuality.
For example, the district has reportedly paid more than $90,000 to Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago over the past few years through its Sexuality Education Program, which includes instructions on homosexual intimacy and pro-transgender communication.
When Chicago Public Schools refused to provide those records, Attorney General Kwame Raoul's (D) office sided with the district, saying Illinois law does not require the release of such information.
"The problem lies in the Freedom of Information Act in Illinois, which isn't set up to help parents find out what their kids are being taught," explains Truth Alliance Foundation President Thomas Hampson. "It's set up to allow the schools and teachers, at their will, to avoid providing information to the parents."
He says the problem is the legislators, the teachers' unions, and the bureaucrats who are behind that language in the law.
"[It] could easily be solved just by changing the law," he adds.
Hampson says most schools will allow parents to take a look at the books and other materials that children are learning, "however, they are not required to do that."
"In fact, no teacher is required to provide information that they might add to the material that's the general curricula that's provided in the schools," he notes. "Their teaching notes, their lesson plan -- none of that information is available to the general public. It's specifically exempted in the Illinois Freedom of Information Act."
He submits that all that language needs to be eliminated.
