Wow, oh wow. This is so informative and full of information I had to go over some spots several times. The host talks rather quickly, more than I am used to and I did not check the CC as I was listening only as I was doing something else. But my dogs that love gravy she has this stuff down. Hugs
A minority of a minority with in a minority is trying to force a religious strict moral view of what is acceptable in society. These small groups of driven fundamentalist, who think any advances in society since the 1950s angers their deity they are desperate to please, use threats and violence to take the rights away from everyone else. This one man is demanding the right to decide what everyone’s children get to read and see. Removing other parents rights to bring up their children as accepting of others and themselves. Please note the harm he claims will happen because of this book, damaged souls. One line about playing spin the bottle. Tell me what five year even knows that could be sexual. Kids start playing that as preteens as they go through puberty, daring each to kiss someone. So it is an innocent line, there is no description of what it is. If a kid asks, the adult says it is a game played with the bottle to see how long you can keep it spinning or something. Even worse if they lose their attempts to get a book removed all they have to do is keep filing complaints which keeps it off the shelves or the book get removed as too much of a problem. Hugs
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The children’s book is under review in one school district after a local conservative activist ranted that one aspect of it could “DAMAGE SOULS.”
A lone parent filed a complaint to a Florida school district that a book in the Arthur series—yes, the same Arthur from the beloved PBS animated show—contained references to Spin the Bottle, and now it’s possibly on the district’s chopping block.
A member of the Clay County School District community, based in Green Cove Springs, filed the challenge on July 12 to Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Birthday, a children’s book geared towards students in kindergarten to sixth grade. District spokesperson Terri Dennis told The Daily Beast that it was among 45 challenged titles now “pending oversight committee review.”
On Wednesday, the district provided The Daily Beast with the stack of challenge forms the school district had received for July. At least eight book challenges filed that month were submitted by a local conservative activist named Bruce Friedman.
Arthur’s Birthday details the title character’s upcoming birthday and how it falls on the same day as another party for a classmate, who happens to be a girl. Arthur wants all of his friends to show up, and figures out a plan to combine the parties together. At the end, Arthur receives a “Spin the Bottle” present from one of the girls.
On his form, Friedman wrote, “PROTECT CHILDREN!! IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS ‘SPIN THE BOTTLE’ WITH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THIS BOOK IS FOUND IN ALL/ALMOST ALL [DISTRICT SCHOOLS]!”
Friedman continued to scribble across the form how “SPIN THE BOTTLE” is “NOT OKAY FOR K-5 KIDS!” and how the content could potentially “DAMAGE SOULS.” He also included images from the book that he felt were not suitable for its intended audience.
“The entire book is about being inclusive of all friends and not only inviting boys or girls (based on your gender) to your birthday party,” literary watchdog Florida Freedom to Read Project wrote on Twitter.
Reagan Miller, a member of Florida Freedom to Read Project, said she believes book banners are just trying to create “chaos in the education system” and make a boogeyman out of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I think it’s more to keep feeding a narrative,” she told The Daily Beast, suggesting that even Barney & Friends could be the next target.
And just like that, 20 additional titles have been added to the 23/24 list in @oneclayschools.
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) July 17, 2023
Friedman wrote disapproving notes on other book challenge forms. However, he also included disparaging comments about librarians, suggested that district administrators needed to be fired, and consistently berated some authors for being “repeat offenders.”
Dennis told The Daily Beast that “95 [percent] of the book challenges in Clay County come from one individual in the community.” She didn’t specify who that individual was, but Friedman is responsible for nearly all book challenges in the county, according to independent newsletter Popular Information.
Friedman is the president of Florida’s chapter of No Left Turn in Education, a group known for fear-mongering the teachings of Critical Race Theory. According to the group’s website, its goal is to “use all forms of media to expose the radical indoctrination in K-12 education.”
At a Florida Department of Education meeting in December, Friedman bragged about creating a list of over 3,600 books that he felt contained “concerning content,” Popular Information reported. In June 2022, Friedman’s mic was cut off when he attempted to read a rape scene aloud during a school board meeting.
Friedman declined an interview request with The Daily Beast on Thursday. “No thank you,” he wrote in an email.
Clay County School District’s Library Media Services Manual states that “challenged materials should be presented to the District Curriculum Council.”
“Materials under question will be held until a decision has been made,” the manual reads. “A decision to remove materials from the library media center is based on the recommendation of the District Curriculum Council and the final decision of the Superintendent or designee.”
If a book is resubmitted as part of a complaint, the oversight committee—media and academic administrators within the district—can choose to completely chuck the book from schools’ libraries or dismiss the challenge. If the person who filed the complaint wants to appeal the group’s decision, then the school board schedules a hearing and they make the final call.
According to district records, as of Thursday, Arthur’s Birthday is still “Pending Oversight Committee Review.”
So many of the horrible things happening in America right now, like teaching our children slaves were lucky to learn skills, or allowing women to bleed out in hospital parking lots, or pushing migrants into rivers to drown, could be stopped by the women who look exactly like me.
These white men won’t quit until the US is a Christian theocracy policed by Christian Taliban moral police thugs. Some important quotes that show their mindset. Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own. Also week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed. Hugs
Florida's new African American history standards include a requirement that middle schoolers learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." @goni_lessanhttps://t.co/DCjauBVLbV
Enslavers defended slavery by claiming it was a “positive good” for Black people. Today Florida’s Board of Education approved new Black history standards that note enslaved Black people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”https://t.co/xNEIZoK4o3
^ That captures it in a nutshell. The education of slaves was to benefit the people holding them in bondage as property.
Some of his fans are disappointed they don’t get to see him in action.
So DeSantis and his followers trash talk and urge boycotts against a company in which the trust fund HE oversees invests; and when his followers boycott the company and crash the sales, he threatens to sue the company. What a maroon.https://t.co/UcBeyANmTL
If I’m understanding this correctly, DeSantis praised the Bud Light boycott, claimed he’d never drink the beer again, and now wants to sue because … the boycott he endorsed and engaged in had consequences? https://t.co/cKJyHkvZVB
It seems entirely premature, but the looming Oct. 1 deadline for state parties to submit delegate changes to the RNC has the Trump team moving to lock down their support now—and know where they might stand if there’s a 2nd ballot on the floor. https://t.co/E4LE7i5we6
Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president would retire “immediately” after fallout surrounding political pushback of a new director of its journalism program because of her work promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Germany’s 1933 civil service law applied to university professors as well as elementary and secondary-school teachers. … Scholars who were Jewish or supported left-leaning parties struggled to find research and teaching positions in public, government-supported German universities and often worked in private ones instead. With the passage of the new law, the Nazis attempted to root out any dissent to their policies and ideology that remained in German higher education.
They call it other things, like “Protecting Children” or “Academic Freedom”. None of which is their actual goal, but it’s just bigotry and racism repackaged to make it more palatable.
Honestly, who would be against diversity? Racists… that’s who.
🚨BREAKING: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signs new congressional map that does NOT contain the second majority-Black district that the U.S. Supreme Court required.
Parents and police at the Chino Valley Unified School District board meeting.Photo: KTLA screenshot
California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond was kicked out of a contentious four-hour meeting of the Chino Valley Unified School District board on Thursday evening after he allegedly spoke for more than his allotted one-minute time limit against a policy to out transgender students to their parents.
An estimated 300 people attended — many on both sides of the issue waving flags, T-shirts, and signs — and 83 people commented during the meeting. The board eventually voted 4-1 to approve the policy, which will require educators to notify parents within 72 hours if their child requests to use bathrooms, pronouns, or names that don’t match the gender and name listed on their birth certificate.
The state once allowed trans students use bathrooms, pronouns, and play on sports teams matching their gender identities. Not anymore…
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“The policy you consider tonight may not only fall outside of privacy laws but may put our students at risk,” Thurmond said before being ejected. In response, school board President Sonja Shaw said, “Tony Thurmond, I appreciate you being here, but we are here because of people like you,” Shaw said. “You’re in Sacramento, proposing things that pervert children.”
As security officers led Thurmond away, some attendees chanted, “Kick him out!” Officers also ejected several other attendees. While some of the other public commenters said that parents have a right to know if their child is questioning their gender, others said the policy will violate trans students’ privacy by outing them to their potentially unsupportive parents and will also burden teachers with additional stressful responsibilities that will diminish student-teacher trust.
In a statement issued via Twitter after the meeting, Thurmond wrote, “I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away.” He also wrote that ejecting him from the meeting silences the voices of those he represents.
“Let me be clear,” he continued, “I will always stand with California students and will use every power of my office to protect them from politicians who seek to divide our communities instead of keeping our kids safe.”
Tonight I went to a school board meeting to stand up for LGBTQ+ students who invited me to join them as they spoke out against a radical new policy that threatens their safety. When done speaking,the board president verbally attacked me an instructed the police to remove me.(1/5)
In a letter to the Chino Valley Unified school board Thursday evening, state Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote, “By allowing for the disclosure of a student’s gender identity without their consent, Chino Valley Unified School District’s suggested Parental Notification policy would strip them of their freedom, violate their autonomy, and potentially put them in a harmful situation. Our schools should be protecting the rights of all students, especially those who are most vulnerable, and should be safeguarding students’ rights to fully participate in all educational and extracurricular opportunities.”
The policy is supported by several anti-LGBTQ+ groups, including the California Family Council, a group that considers gender-affirming care for trans youth a form of “medical abuse”; the Pacific Justice Institute, which opposes bans on conversion therapy; and Moms for Liberty, a so-called “anti-woke, parents’ rights” group that has recently been labeled as an extremist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality California, called the district’s proposal “truly sick” and said it “directly, blatantly goes against state law.”
The California Department of Education’s (CDE) website states that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”
The CDE states that “schools are required to respect the student’s wishes” and adds that in some “very rare circumstances where a school believes there is a specific and compelling ‘need to know,’ the school should inform the student that the school intends to disclose the student’s transgender status [to their parents or guardians], giving the student the opportunity to make that disclosure [themselves].”
Right-wing groups have said such policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” “encouraging” students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge. However, medical experts say that transgender and non-binary youth don’t transition just because their peers and adult figures pressure them to do so.
A 2022 Trevor Project survey revealed that only 32% of trans and nonbinary youths felt that their home was a supportive and gender-affirming environment.
This about bigotry and erasing LGBTQ+ people from history. These same people refusing to teach kids about an openly gay political claiming he was a pedophile, insinuating he was abusing little children. He was said to be in relationships with a couple of older teens who were well over the age of consent. In NY at the time the age of consent was 14. But these same bigot haters have no trouble promoting the teaching of republican politicians who have been charged and found guilty of child sex abuse. Also there is a double standard. No one refers to Elvis as a pedophile or pederast. Priscilla Beaulieu was only 14 years old when she met 24-year-old Elvis Presley. At the age of 40, Elvis dated Reeca Smith, then 15 years of age. There are scores of examples of male celebrities and their 16-year-old girlfriends. This is just an excuse to prevent children from learning that gay people exist and are leaders in government. These haters want to wipe out any mention of gay or trans people from history and society. Plus these bigots refused to use the new textbooks with Milk in them even after the parents overwhelming told them to do so. Quotes below. Hugs
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that the state would be fining the Temecula Valley Unified School District in an ongoing battle over a social studies curriculum that involves gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
On Tuesday, the TVUSD board voted against the new curriculum, which has been endorsed by the state, adding to what has been a tumultuous span of weeks in which the governor and district have been trading jabs.
A 3-2 vote saw the board again reject the material solely based on the mention of Milk, a gay rights figure who paved the way for LGBTQ+ members today, becoming the first openly gay man elected into office in California. Board members and a group of parents are upset over allegations that Milk was a pedophile and had a relationship with a teenager while he was in his 30s.
As a result, Gov. Newsom imposed a $1.5 million fine for the district, in what he calls a “willful violation of the law.” He also plans on providing the new textbooks to TVUSD students prior to the start of the new school year, which begins on Aug. 14, along with the estimated $1.6 million price tag to acquire the textbooks.
“The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will ensure students in Temecula begin the school year with access to materials reviewed by parents and recommended by teachers across the district. After we deliver the textbooks into the hands of students and their parents, the state will deliver the bill — along with a $1.5 million fine — to the school board for its decision to willfully violate the law, subvert the will of parents, and force children to use an out-of-print textbook from 17 years ago.”
OFFICE OF GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“They embrace the fact that Governor Newsom is getting involved because it’s almost like that’s their goal,” said Aaron Cook, a TVUSD parent. “Rather than doing what’s best for the students.”
On top of that, their current textbooks are dated and don’t contain an accurate representation of the state’s history, preventing children from receiving a thorough education.
“This is not a religious school district,” said another TVUSD student. “It’s a public school district that has to abide by California Public Education Code.”
In what was yet another emotionally charged meeting on Tuesday, a video shows one woman being escorted out of the room after confronting board members.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Other members voiced their full support for the efforts of the board members.
“I can tell you know that you have more support than you’ll ever know,” said one man, whose comment was met by cheers from others in the crowd.
Upon request for comment, TVUSD issued a statement on behalf of Board President Komrosky, which said:
“I speak personally here and not on behalf of the entire TVUSD Board when I say, the Temecula Valley Unified School District is not done with its work on curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year. We continue to engage our parents and work diligently towards finding the right solution for our community, and every day we make progress towards that goal. We still have the time to continue this critical process and meet all state and federal mandates before the next school year begins. Throughout this process, we have put a high value on Board priorities such as curriculum & instruction as well as family & community. One such policy priority of the Board is that “Our families and community members will feel connected, informed, and welcome to participate as true partners in the education of our students.” We take that policy seriously and intend for those words to have actual meaning. Additionally, parental feedback is critical in collaborating with our educators, and executive staff to find agreement on what standards will best achieve educational excellence.
A critical component of that exercise is to determine the subject matter’s age appropriateness for any curriculum and the specific grade level at hand. While engaged in this process, I am confident that while reviewing any curriculum for use in this District, TVUSD will select the best material that emphasizes our mission of, “High-Quality Teaching and Learning for All”, but that also avoids any teacher-to-student conversations related to sex and sexual activity at the elementary school level. These conversations are better left to the parents and their children.
Despite our continuing work and commitment to core values, Governor Newsom has taken unilateral action to intervene in the middle of our work without even contacting the school district first to understand what the school district may be further doing to meet all of the curriculum needs of our students. What he calls inaction we see as responsible considerations for all of our community’s viewpoints as we come to a final decision and with time left to do so. To that end, I will be calling a Special Meeting of the Board for July 21, 2023, to consider a culmination of our work on this issue and the potential adoption of curriculum that meets all state and federal mandates. We do not appreciate Governor Newsom’s effort to usurp local control and all that will apparently result from these tactics is a waste of the taxpayers’ money. We sincerely hope he has a 14-day return policy with the publisher of the books he just purchased.”
“My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” he said at the highly contentious meeting.
In the time since, Newsom has directed public comments towards the school board, referring to Komrosky as “an ignorant person.”
Komrosky responded to the governor, in a rhetorically-charged statement of his own.
“I assure you that I am anything but ignorant regarding what you said. Governor, you said it right when you said this isn’t Texas or Florida as we could be so much better than these states if we had better leadership than the top levels of government…,” Komrosky said.
This is the latest instance of the California governor’s attempts at preventing book banning, both in the Golden State and nationally, after interjecting himself into ongoing debates in Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida.
The mention of LGBTQ+ material has been highly-divisive in school districts across the United States, with several notable instances taking place in Southern California in recent months.
Gay and trans people exist, get over it! Gay and trans kids exist. LGBTQ+ people are real and in every part of society. We deserve equality and our civil rights. We deserve representation in media as much as white religious people. These programs are not sexual acts or positions instructions. These programs do not teach kids how to change their genders and flaunt their parent’s god. What they do is give kids information on what some feelings they are having might be, they teach that different people exist. These programs increase understanding, acceptance, and tolerance for people that are different. That is what really is horrifying to these religious bigots. They seem to think if they deny that LGBTQ+ people are real, if they wipe out any representation of them in media of all kinds, they can make the LGBTQ+ disappear. Poof, gone. It doesn’t work that way! It is like claiming that redheads don’t exist and removing books and movies that have redheads in them that redheads will disappear. Do they think if they ignore people of color, they will just stop existing? It doesn’t happen that way. Like red hair and skin color being LGBTQ+ is something you are born as, it is not learned or a lifestyle choice. Remember there have been gay and trans kids / people in all the history of the human existence. I grew up in a time and place where there were no books about gay kids, there were no movies with gay kids, there were no out gay people among anyone I knew. Yet I was gay, I knew it in every part of me that I was attracted to boys growing up. I felt it, I was experiencing it, but I had no understanding of what it was. As I got near my teens, I thought I was the only one in the world that felt this way. How great it would have been for me in school to have been able to see a movie with a gay boy and have it be accepted as normal. How great it would have been to read stories of gay boys instead of straight boys and girls only all the time. It is like if you were black and had to watch movies or read books with only white people in them. And think how great it would have been had a teacher explained to me and my classmates what those feelings were, and that there was a world of good role models for people like me. Think of the years of teenage bullying that could have been avoided or tempered if the schools / teachers had inclusion and acceptance programs. These religious bigots want their kids to be able to shame and insult / bully LGBTQ+ kids without any push back or consequences. These bigots have to learn to coexist with others. They are not living in a bubble, in isolation. They are like the Amish except they are not happy with themselves being allowed to ignore advances / changes in the world but they are demanding that everyone else do so also. They are demanding that everyone live as they do and the world pretend that only they are real. Hugs
A group of parents is suing the school board to allow them to opt their children out of LGBTQ+-inclusive lessons.
Parents protest Montgomery County Public Schools no opt-out policy.Photo: Screenshot/WUSA9
Parents are demanding that a Maryland school district allow them to opt their children out of its LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.
As Axios reported last month, in March, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Rockville, Maryland, ended a policy allowing parents to opt their students out of the district’s pre-K–12 language arts curriculum, which had been updated to include books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.
States across the country are banning discussions of LGBTQ people in schools. Not Maryland.
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According to a district statement on its “Inclusive and Welcoming Learning” initiative, the LGBTQ+-inclusive materials are part of the district’s efforts to cultivate “an inclusive and welcoming learning environment” and “to create opportunities where all students see themselves and their families in curriculum materials.”
In a Frequently Asked Questions section of the statement, the district notes that there is no “explicit instruction on gender and sexual identity in elementary school as part of content instruction,” adding that the LGBTQ+-inclusive books “include a diversified representation of people.”
The decision to end the opt-out policy, which the district instituted last October, led to an outcry from religious groups and members of the community. Protesters began showing up at Montgomery County School Board meetings in late March.
In May, a group of Christian and Muslim families sued the Montgomery County school board and superintendent, arguing that not allowing them to opt out of the lessons violates their First Amendment rights.
“Our clients represent families from all across Montgomery County with diverse religious faiths,” Will Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which is representing the families, told KATV in May. “And while they have differences on those issues, they share one thing in common, which is the right of parents to direct their children’s religious upbringing and their education, especially when it comes to sensitive issues, like a person’s identity, their child’s own identity.”
According to WUSA9, the lawsuit points to a Maryland law that requires school systems to establish opt-out policies for students. But in its own court filing, MCPS said that the school administrators are allowed to deny opt-out requests if they become too burdensome.
“Individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt-out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment and undermining MCPS’s educational mission,” MCPS’s response read.
Last Thursday, both protesters and counter-protesters again descended on a Montgomery County School Board meeting. As WUSA9 reported, the protest against the no opt-out policy was led by Muslim parents, one of whom argued that religious children were being bullied and labeled as bigots by their peers.
“You say you want to protect the rights of trans children and their families while simultaneously you violate the rights of other children and their families,” Nadhira Rasheed said.
Rachel Hull, the parent of a non-binary child, was among the counter-protesters. “Much of the opt-out arguments are couched as parental rights and religious freedom,” she told WUSA9. “But what it boils down to is that the LGBT+ community is being told that their very existence is abnormal. And that their identity should be a source of shame.”
But Governor DeathSantis claims that he has ended indoctrination in Florida schools. If you don’t already know, Prager U is a YouTube channel funded to the tune of at least $36 million a year (last I read) by the billionaire Mercer family to spread bigotry and racism. The Channel has videos against every civil rights gain since the 1950s, while pushing the wholesome goodness of white men. The channel pushes that white people had a right to do what they have done in history to other groups and that god has established the traditional way life should be. The fact is what the republicans working with or are religious fundamentalist bigots are fiercely pushing indoctrination of right wing religious views while trying to erase all social and scientific advancements since 1950. Hugs
PragerU (initialism for Prager University, and short for Prager University Foundation[4]) is an American advocacy group and media organization that creates content promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic, and sociological topics. It was co-founded in 2009 by Allen Estrin and talk show host Dennis Prager.
Despite the group’s name being an initialism for Prager University, it is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees.PragerU’s videos contain content widely considered to be misleading or false in promoting climate change denial. Historians and political scientists have also criticized PragerU’s videos for containing misleading or inaccurate claims about topics such as slavery and racism in the United States, immigration, and the history of fascism. PragerU has also been accused of promoting anti-LGBTQ politics.
PragerU purports to liberate children from the “dominant left-wing ideology.”
A right-wing nonprofit that “offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology” has announced that Florida has become the first state to approve the organization as an educational vendor.
“This fall in schools across America, students will be watching PragerU videos in their classrooms as states officially make PragerU an approved educational resource,” the group said in a press release, according to the Miami New Times.
The school is currently dependent on visiting faculty to fill the gaps.
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PragerU, which is not an accredited academic institution, offers propaganda-filled materials for students in kindergarten through 12th grade through its PragerU Kids program. It describes itself as being in “the mind-changing business.”
“In the past, teachers have been disciplined — even fired — for showing PragerU videos in their classrooms,” the press release states. “Now, PragerU videos are not only being allowed in classrooms but superintendents and education commissioners are actively encouraging teachers to use PragerU’s content to educate their students… PragerU supplemental curriculum offers an easy, cutting-edge way to teach core knowledge in subjects ranging from civics and history to entrepreneurship and financial literacy.”
In addition to a slew of videos for kids, the organization offers resources like a sample anti-critical race theory policy. Its videos claim the gender wage gap does not exist and that white people are unfairly villainized for stealing the land of Native Americans.
A petition on its website claims that “PragerU is trying to help America’s students—but the left (which has hijacked and controlled the education system, including teachers unions) is doing everything in its power to label us as ‘far right,’ deplatform us, and keep PragerU out of schools.”
“The left wants you to think that the reason students are failing is because bureaucrats need more money,” it states. “The left wants you to believe that teachers unions are protecting kids and doing right by teachers. The left claims kids don’t need patriotic education. Instead, they are teaching Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and that math is racist.”
The Florida Department of Education told the Miami New Times that it “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”
“PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion,” said deputy director of communications Cassie Palelis.
Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) office did not respond to a request for comment, but the group’s way of thinking is in line with the governor’s right-wing ideology.
During his time in office, DeSantis has waged war on public education, most notably through his “Don’t Say Gay” law and his vendetta against the teaching of racial and LGBTQ+ issues in schools.
In May, he signed a law forbidding colleges and universities from spending state or federal funding on programs that promote political or social activism or “diversity, equity, and inclusivity” (DEI). DeSantis said such DEI programs often actually stand for “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.”
In 2022, DeSantis signed the so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” which forbids schools and businesses from offering educational programs on racism and gender-based discrimination. The law is currently on hold as a court considers its impact on constitutionally protected rights to free speech.
Scottie's Playtime 