House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

I plan to reintroduce legislation (HB 473 of last session), which would require the Pennsylvania Department of Education to establish a media literacy curriculum for Pennsylvania's students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12. The legislation would prepare Pennsylvania's students with critical thinking skills and knowledge to evaluate the accuracy of new stories on social media and other sources for themselves.

The prominence of intentionally false stories made to appear as legitimate news reports has continued to increase and fake news continues to do a disservice to our public discourse. Regardless of a person's political affiliation, opinions should not be presented as fact unless they are supported by facts.

The sophistication in how false information is disguised and spread can make it very difficult for someone, particularly young people, to determine fact from fiction.

Accordingly, I believe the Department of Education should establish a media literacy curriculum and create a list of resources and materials on media literacy for school districts and ensure approved media literacy training opportunities that are available for use in professional development programs for teachers.

I hope you join me in this co-sponsoring this important legislation.

Previous Cosponsors of HB 473: HILL-EVANS, KINSEY, MADDEN, ISAACSON, KINKEAD, SANCHEZ, CIRESI, BIZZARRO, SHUSTERMAN, GUENST, WEBSTER, N. NELSON, O'MARA and GREEN,