Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Kentucky House Education Committee Approves Bill That Would Require Public Schools To Teach About Jewsish Holocaust
The House Education committee today approved a resolution that would require the state to develop curriculum on the Jewish Holocaust for use by Kentucky's public schools.
House Joint Resolution 6, sponsored by Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, now goes to the full House for consideration. If passed into law, the curriculum--developed by a state work group--would be available to teachers by the 2009-2010 school year.
"It's not a mandate, but it would be offered as a curriculum," Marzian said.
Several students from St. Francis of Assisi School in Louisville who have received Holocaust education testified to the committee about why the legislation is necessary. By remembering the Holocaust, student Bennett Heine said, Kentucky can honor its victims by "never letting it happen again."
"Kentucky students can set a precedent for kids throughout the country and around the world that we can no longer leave it up to others to fight for the forgotten," Heine said. "We must take a stand."
Rep. Charlie Siler, R-Williamsburg, who visited the concentration camp of Auschwitz in Germany during his early days in the Army, thanked the students for their work on the resolution.
"They're doing something very important that will stick with them a long time," Siler said.
House Joint Resolution 6, sponsored by Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, now goes to the full House for consideration. If passed into law, the curriculum--developed by a state work group--would be available to teachers by the 2009-2010 school year.
"It's not a mandate, but it would be offered as a curriculum," Marzian said.
Several students from St. Francis of Assisi School in Louisville who have received Holocaust education testified to the committee about why the legislation is necessary. By remembering the Holocaust, student Bennett Heine said, Kentucky can honor its victims by "never letting it happen again."
"Kentucky students can set a precedent for kids throughout the country and around the world that we can no longer leave it up to others to fight for the forgotten," Heine said. "We must take a stand."
Rep. Charlie Siler, R-Williamsburg, who visited the concentration camp of Auschwitz in Germany during his early days in the Army, thanked the students for their work on the resolution.
"They're doing something very important that will stick with them a long time," Siler said.
# posted by Joe Kinzer @ 7:57 PM 
