No more mandates

State Rep. Bill Hembree, R-Douglasville, wants to memorialize the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, by impressing the importance of freedom on the minds of Georgia's school children. So he's submitted a bill to mark the week of Sept. 11 as "Celebrate Freedom Week."

The measure, modeled on legislation Florida passed last year, would require teachers to begin every day that week with a student recitation of the Declaration of Independence, or at least a part of it. Additionally, public schools would have to set aside three hours during the week for classroom discussions of the Declaration.

"The Declaration of Independence is the best document to send the message of who we are as a country," Hembree said.

The lawmaker's heart is in the right place - in fact, it might even be a good thing to have the state take official notice of 9-11 by championing the cause of freedom. It might also be a good idea for schools to incorporate the concept into their lessons.

But we do not think they should be required to. It should be voluntary, decided by the teacher in the classroom, not lawmakers in Atlanta. Among chief complaints teachers have are federal, state, and central office mandates that are forever getting in the way of teaching more pertinent lessons. The mandates not only take up classroom time, but they often require a lot of extra paper work by the teacher. There are too many mandates already; let's not add any more.

The irony is rich indeed: By mandating a week to teach about freedom, the state would be curtailing it.

Hembree's well-meaning legislation is just one more mandate. If Georgians want to keep teachers in the schools, then they better learn to keep the legislators out.