What's Stopping You? Classroom Censorship for Better or Worse

At the beginning of the 2009 school year, the Obama administration announced plans to broadcast the president's Back-to-School speech to the nation's children. Although, a Back-to-School speech has become a somewhat traditional annual speech for presidents, Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, condemned the Obama speech as an attempt to indoctrinate children with his “socialist agenda,” stating Obama's plans for the speech were an abuse of power. Oklahoma State Senator Steve Russell (R) accused the president of attempting to create a cult of personality, adding, “As far as I'm concerned this is not civics education.” School officials in Democratic suburbs near Washington, D.C., reported either bans or intentions to screen the speech before allowing it. Numerous districts and schools across the United States banned the speech from public and private school classrooms. The effort to ban the president's speech was, itself, a controversial social issue.