Rhode Island school imposes $117,130.50 fee to see teacher curriculum

While the headline above would be more appropriate for a satirical article in “The Onion”, it is, in fact, a real news story.

It seems Rhode Island’s Barrington Public Schools want $117,130.50 to show parents what a teacher was teaching.  That’s right, a curriculum (or syllabus, if you prefer) is a few pieces of paper or just an online link.  A teacher’s curriculum or syllabus enables parents to know what their kids are being taught.  It is transparency 101. 

(Oh … FYI.  Curriculum and syllabus are often interchangeable, a curriculum tends to be a broader view and syllabus is more detailed.  Neither are very expensive now very difficult to produce.)

Furthermore, it is information that the citizens of Barrington have paid for with their taxes.  Instead of a modest service fee – like 10 bucks – the school officials are requesting enough to purchase a couple of Teslas and a year’s worth of gas.

The teacher at the center of this education circus is Benjamin Fillo, a social studies instructor who made headlines for posting a video mocking the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Yes, you read that correctly. A public school teacher thought it was appropriate to publicly celebrate the death of a political figure. And when a concerned parent, Nicole Solas, asked to see what this man was teaching her child, the school responded with a bill that looked like it was meant for a Pentagon toilet seat.

This is more in line with a mafia demand than a local school board service fee.  It is obvious that the amount is designed to prevent anyone from getting their hands on the curriculum.  But why $117,130.50, you may ask?  They could have locked out the parents with a much smaller ridiculous fee – say $5,000 or $10,000.  Did they need all that money to give the school board members a huge pay increase?  Probably not, since they know that they will never be collecting that fee.

Oh wait!  They offered an explanation – and explanation that is as ridiculous as the fee itself.  According to school officials it would take hundreds of hours to gather the requested materials – and redact portions of the information. 

Let us look at the math. At a generous $50 per hour, it would take 2340 work hours to compile the information – or 100 people 23 eight hour workdays. 

(I taught college courses and had to produce a curriculum or syllabus. It took me a few days at most to produce the final draft – and it covered about five typed pages.  It was available to anyone upon request without a fee.  And nothing needed to be redacted. I cannot even imagine anything in a produced curriculum that would have to be redacted.}

The request for the exorbitant fee suggests that the curriculum has to be produced from scratch.  The guy was already teaching the course.  Was there not a curriculum already on file?  Are we to believe that even the school administrators and school board had no idea what Mr. Fillo was teaching the children of Barrington, Rhode Island.

Now, let us pause for a moment and appreciate the sheer absurdity of this situation. This was not a request for classified CIA documents or the nuclear launch codes. It is a curriculum — a lesson plan, a worksheet, a syllabus for a high school social studies class, not a graduate course in quantum physics. And yet, the Barrington High School officials essentially said, “Sure, you can see it—if you have $117,130.50 lying around.” That is not transparency. It is extortion with a bureaucratic grin.

And let us not forget why this matters. Mr. Fillo was not just some eccentric teacher with a quirky TikTok. He was placed on leave after publicly celebrating the death of a conservative figure. That is not just tasteless—it is dangerous.

So, what is in that curriculum that school officials are afraid to reveal?  The prohibitive request raises serious questions about what kind of ideological indoctrination might be happening in his classroom. Was he teaching history, or was he teaching hatred? Was he encouraging debate, or pushing dogma? These are questions that Nicole Solas — and every parent — has the right to ask. And every school administration has an obligation to answer.

Instead of answering, however, Barrington Public Schools chose to circle the wagons. This is what happens when education becomes a political playground for the left. They preach equity and inclusion, but when you ask to see what goes on in the classroom, they slam the door and demand a ransom.

Let us be honest.  If the curriculum were squeaky clean, they would have handed it over with a smile and a binder clip. The fact that they are hiding it behind a six-figure payola wall tells you everything you need to know. They are not just afraid of scrutiny—they are terrified.

This is not merely a local scandal. It is symptomatic of a national problem. Across the country, we have seen schools push radical ideologies under the guise of “social justice” and “critical thinking.” When parents push back, they are labeled extremists, domestic terrorists, or—if they are lucky—just handed a bill the size of a Harvard tuition. The left has turned education into a fortress of political indoctrination, and they have staffed the gates with bureaucrats who think transparency is optional.

If a school wants to charge $117,130.50 to show you what your kid is learning, maybe it is time to ask what they are so desperate to hide. Perhaps it is time to remind them that public schools are supposed to serve students, parents and the public—not fleece them  simply because they want to know what their kids are being taught.

So, there ‘tis.