WATCH: “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?”🤔😳
Desantis/FLORIDA’s Ed Dept approved Prager U indoctrination videos to be taught (Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens as narrators) which teach kids slavery was better than the alternative: https://t.co/cJWcVLiiUWpic.twitter.com/Hng5fsg8r8
Florida’s latest curriculum—featuring cartoon Christopher Columbus explaining, “being taken as a slave is better than being killed!” and telling time-traveling kids that slavery was “no big deal.”
This is the kind of propaganda DeSantis and his friends at PragerU are teaching… pic.twitter.com/wPY8USFzhQ
Weird. Why are these white supremacist fascists upset about being identified as white supremacist fascists. No white fascist pride? Patriot Front members sue activist who infiltrated, identified them. Kudos to the activist who infiltrated them! https://t.co/fZq3PxFkpv
Federal authorities sent a subpoena to the Jefferson County School District in June.
Then-Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, left, motions back to Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference at St. Petersburg Collegiate High School on March 15, 2022, in St. Petersburg. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]
TALLAHASSEE — A federal grand jury is investigating allegations of bid-rigging involving Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Department of Education, charter school operators and the control of a small North Florida school district.
Federal authorities issued a subpoena to the Jefferson County School District in June seeking communications between district officials, charter school lobbyists and former top officials in DeSantis’ education department.
It also seeks records relating to the department’s attempt to steer a multimillion-dollar contract to a politically connected company with ties to DeSantis’ former education commissioner, Richard Corcoran. The contract would have been funded by federal coronavirus relief dollars.
The subpoena, obtained by the Times/Herald in a public records request, was issued by a federal prosecutor in Gainesville. The subpoena requests the records be sent to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General in Pembroke Pines.
A spokesperson for the federaleducation department’s Office of Inspector General said the office does not confirm or deny investigative activity.
The federal inquiry comes a year and a half after the Times/Herald reported on the bid-rigging allegations involving Jefferson County’s school district, which became the first, and only, district to be privatized by the state.
Control of the small three-school district near Tallahassee was turned over to private charter school operator Somerset Academy Inc. in 2017. The five-year contract was scheduled to end in 2022, when the school board would resume control.
But under Corcoran’s leadership, the Department of Education decided in 2021 it would hire consultants for up to three years to help the district’s transition, and it would use $4 million in federal coronavirus relief dollars assigned to the district to pay for it.
School district officials were against the plan, arguing that its annual budget was only $8.5 million, so it couldn’t afford to spend $4 million on consultants. When thestate Department of Education solicited offers to help the district, bidding was open for only a week. Only one qualified company responded: MGT Consulting, led by Trey Traviesa, a former GOP state representative from Tampa with ties to Corcoran.
Procurements are supposed to be free of favoritism. But the Times/Herald found that on Nov. 1, 2021, a week before the procurement was announced, top education officials were already meeting with Traviesa, top charter school lobbyists and Jefferson County officials about the procurement.
MGT was ultimately never hired. The Department of Education restarted the bidding after two senior department officials — former K-12 chancellor Jacob Oliva and former Vice Chancellor for Strategic Development Melissa Ramsey — and a member of the State Board of Education created their own company and filed a competing bid. Ultimately, the plan to spend the money on consultants was dropped.
Oliva is now Arkansas’ Department of Education secretary.
The Florida Department of Education’s inspector general investigated Ramsey and Oliva’s bidfor potential conflicts of interest but never addressed any apparent irregularities with MGT’s bid.
The federalsubpoena, dated June 12, does not mention Corcoran. But it names Oliva, Ramsey and Suzanne Pridgeon, the state Department of Education’s deputy commissioner for finance and operations.
The subpoena also requests text messages, emails and other communications between Traviesa, MGT Consulting, Jefferson County schoolssuperintendent Eydie Tricquet, representatives of Somerset Academy Inc. and Ralph Arza, a prominent charter school lobbyist and longtime Corcoran ally. At the time that Somerset was operating the district’s schools, Arza had four relatives working for the company in Jefferson County.
The subpoena seeks records relating to the procurement, along with records of the Nov. 1 meeting and other meetings in 2021 between Arza, school district officials and Department of Education officials.
The Florida Department of Education and DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to emails sent Friday afternoon seeking comment. After the Times/Herald reported the allegations last year, the governor’s office said Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel would review how the Department of Education and its inspector general handled the bid for the multimillion-dollar contract. The state has never produced the results.
Corcoran declined to comment. He is now serving as interim president of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school in Sarasota County that DeSantis and political appointees are trying to turn into a beacon of conservatism.
Oh clutch my pearls, classical literature is not as pure as today’s fundamentalist Christian nationalist who just don’t want their children to get an education but they demand the right to stop your child or anyone from getting one. This is not about parental control, it is about one minor fundamentalist religious group having complete control over the education of all the children in the entire state. But only for public schools. The schools paid for with tax dollars and that educate the lower incomes. The private schools do not have to follow these stupid bigoted rules. My dogs that love gravy, this has been a Christian Taliban moral police take over. Next girls will only be allowed to attend school until the 8th grade and must wear ankle length dresses, and everyone will be in drab colors. Hugs
School district officials in Hillsborough County, Fla., have implemented a newly designed curriculum guide for English teachers that will see students reading only selections from William Shakespeare plays.
“There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time,” said Joseph Cool, a reading teacher at Gaither High School.
“I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing us,” he added. “Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.”
Schools in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa Bay and the surrounding area, are mostly assigning excerpts by the English language’s most famous writer. The schools previously required students to read two of Shakespeare’s novels or plays, in their entirety, per year.
The decision comes as educators must prepare students for a new set of state exams that cover a wide variety of subject matter, and also, “in consideration of the law,” according to a school district spokesperson, which means teaching it could open educators up to disciplinary measures if a parent were to file a complaint.
The “law” in question is the new Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teaching any content that is sexual in nature.
Florida high schools are now removing Shakespeare, including the full text of “Romeo and Juliet,” to comply with Republicans’ new law restricting “sexual content.”
“I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing at us,” a teacher said.
If your kids are go to school in Tampa, thanks to bigly failing @GovRonDeSantis, they will read Shakespeare "while avoiding anything racy or sexual," i.e. "excerpts" from "Romeo & Juliet," "Othello," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Macbeth" not full plays https://t.co/jETfpNm6Vy
[Jerusalem] saw this, yet she was more corrupt than [Samaria] in her lusting and in her prostitutions, which were worse than those of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. But she carried her prostitutions further; she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, with belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers—a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust, and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust. When she carried on her prostitutions so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister. Yet she increased her prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts. – Ezekiel 23:11-2
It is happening in Sarasota County too: “Teachers offloading books in DeSantis’ Florida, resellers say,” Aug. 4.
I work in a Sarasota County thrift store. This summer, the store has received thousands of books from schools and classroom libraries. They are marked with the names of teachers or schools.
It is clear from the wide variety of titles that teachers work hard to help every student feel validated and included in a diverse classroom.
I literally cried in the store when I saw the titles: Newbery Award and Honor Books, the highest award a children’s book can receive from the American Library Association, no longer available to children in their schools. Most of the books depict characters from minority and vulnerable populations.
Reading novels with characters that face struggles the reader does not experience develops empathy for others. Perhaps our governor could read a few and develop a little empathy himself.
I feel sorry for all the youngsters in Florida who are being deprived of everything except a selective education which intentionally leaves gigantic holes in their curriculum.
Those who go off to college (esp. out of state) are going to find out they’re years behind their classmates.
Only the public schools. The elite private schools are not bound by the state curriculum and will be able to teach real history, literature, art, etc. Rhonda’s children go to private school.
The ones who are exceptionally smart will find a way to get educated. I’m concerned about the others. Not every child is going to be able to do what Tara Westover did.
I am running out of words to describe how fucked up and out of touch with reality the fundamentalist Christian nationalist racist dictatorship of DeathSantis Florida kingdom. They are so scared of not following 1950s gender stereotypes and the social acceptance of LGBTQ+ kids that even nicknames must now get a parent’s approval / permission slip. I can see that teacher phone call “Mrs Bigot your 8 your son Theodore wants to be called Teddy and your 10 year old son Harold wishes to be called Skip, I need to inform you of this in case it is a gender sexual orientation thing and get you to write your formal approval”! WTF It is nutz. What about kids calling each other names? What about the mean names the bigots kids are taught to call the gay or trans kids, do the teachers need to get permission for that? They are not allowed to stop it anymore in the bigoted kingdom of DeathSantis. Hugs
Students who attend school in Florida will now need parental permission to use a nickname or preferred name in school, thanks to a law put in place by the state’s governor, Ronald Dion DeSantis, who famously goes by a nickname — Ron.
The rule will soon hit all Florida districts and follows new legislation that was adopted in July that aims to “strengthen the rights of parents and safeguard their child’s educational record to ensure the use of the child’s legal name in school or a parent-approved nickname,” according to Florida’s Department of Education.
Students who wish to be called anything other than their legal name in school will need their parents to sign off, according to memos sent to parents by Orange County Public Schools and Seminole County Public Schools. Marion County Schools and Volusia County Schools confirmed to FOX 35 that they have plans to issue similar memos.
For example, if your child’s name is Robert but likes to be called “Rob,” the form will need to be filled out to make that happen.
This form also applies to transgender students who wish to be called something other than their legal name, according to the school district. This, however, does not allow teachers and staff to use a student’s preferred pronouns, and does not allow a teacher or staff member to ask a student’s preferred pronoun, which was barred under House Bill 1069.
For example, if your child's name is Robert but likes to be called Rob, the form will need to be filled out so teachers and staff can call your child Rob. https://t.co/fwwxtt0287
some people are shocked when I tell them the unabridged complete works of Shakespeare was in the bookcase of the bedroom I shared with my brother when I was 8 years old and he was 4. The set was given to this pastor’s family by another pastor.
What the fuck. I’ve gone by my middle name — without needing anyone’s permission — for decades. The only people who call me by my first name are 1) my mom, and 2) telemarketers.
Just finished reading for the second time “Downfall” byTraudl Junge Hitlers personal secretary. For Florida aand indeed America in many many ways an exacting template If we do NOT learn from history we are destined to repeat in It.’s been not quite 100 years
I had one high school teacher, Sister Mary Robertine, who insisted on calling all students by their “real” name. Classmate Frank gave it to her when she called him “Francis” (Frank was his legal name).
Thanks to Ali for the link. This is important information that in red states run by republicans it is illegal to teach to kids. In Florida, even 18-year-old seniors in high school and higher education college kids are too sensitive and delicate to learn that not all heroes are cis straight people. After all the important people in history were a cis straight people and it is important to never mention the LGBTQ+ people at all or people might think they were normal and great. Hugs
“Baron Von Steuben” was responsible for whipping the the U.S. military into shape when things were looking bleakest
It’s official: PragerU will now be offered in Florida schools. Additionally, Charlie Kirk announced dozens of new high school and college field organizers are being trained for his Turning Point USA organization to spread propaganda in high schools and colleges across the country. In other words, the right is ramping up their effort to indoctrinate students while they accuse the left of “woke” indoctrination.
Critics condemn superintendent Mike Miles’s ‘new education system’ that removes students’ access to books
The state is to take over the district next year due to poor academic performance. Photograph: Francois Picard/AFP/Getty Images
The largest school district in Texas announced its libraries will be eliminated and replaced with discipline centers in the new school year.
Houston independent school district announced earlier this summer that librarian and media-specialist positions in 28 schools will be eliminated as part of superintendent Mike Miles’s “new education system” initiative.
Teachers at these schools will soon have the option to send misbehaving students to these discipline centers, or “team centers’” – designated areas where they will continue to learn remotely.
News of the library removals comes after the state announced it would be taking over the district, effective in the 2023-24 school year, due to poor academic performance. Miles was appointed by the the Texas Education Agency in June.
In a press release announcing the schools participating in the “new education system” program, Miles said: “I am overwhelmingly proud that this many HISD school leaders are ready to take bold action to improve outcomes for all students and eradicate the persistent achievement and opportunity gaps in our district.”
Lisa Robinson, a librarian retired from the school district, told local news outlet KPRC2 that her “heart is just broken for these children that are in the [NES] schools that are losing their librarians”.
Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, condemned the district’s move and said the solution to the problem of behavioral conduct was not to revoke access to books, especially in these underserved communities.
He said: “Are there students who need additional support? Yes, and I am 100% supportive of that. But it’s not an eithe/or. You don’t close the libraries, remove the librarians, and simply have the books on the shelf. What about all the other students? What are you saying to them?”
He added: “With all due respect to the superintendent, I grew up in this city. I still live in the same neighborhood that exists. I am the mayor of this city, and I am the mayor of every person who lives in the city of Houston.”
He urged schools to open up libraries to avoid creating a two-tier system within the district, as well as providing additional support to students who need it.
The Houston independent school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Houston, Texas’ school district is now eliminating librarians and replacing school libraries with “discipline centers” after Texas Republicans forcibly took over the district using state power.
This is the school to prison pipeline. They’re teaching the undesirable kids, ie black and brown inner city teens, that the only future in front of them is a prison sentence.
These motherfuckers aren’t even trying to hide their education-hating bastardy anymore.
I used to practically LIVE in my school’s libraries. They were my sanctuary and my escape.
And now they want to turn them into little day prisons inside their bigger day prisons for children being prepped only for lives of manual labor and poverty.
Same. My neighbourhood library just a few blocks away was my sanctuary. I knew all the librarians and they knew me. I grew up there. I knew all of their names and they knew to leave me alone to find what I was searching for. Art, history, and even sex books as I got older. They were better for me than catholic school or even my parents. Best of all was that none of the other neighbourhood kids or my family, other than my mom, ever went there. She was the person who taught me to love reading and research.
I used to love to walk to the public library when I was in grade school. I loved books about space and about science fiction. I would check out and read as many books as I could on a regular basis. The school library didn’t have as many books. But I liked the libraries in high school and college, and in graduate school as well. One summer when I was in graduate school for an MSW, I drove to the Institute for Sex Research to do a week of independent study of transvestism, and what was then called transsexualism. While there I met Alan Bell, and we discussed some of the latest theories on the origins of homosexuality.
This is terrible for all kids but especially those from low income families. It’s not just about access to books, but also to the internet, computers and other media and technology that many couldn’t afford otherwise. Books are great but only one part of what modern libraries do. And lack of access makes it impossible for them to get themselves to the kind of opportunities their talents might take them.
I’m betting that if Houston actually gets to do this the discipline centers will be 99% Latino, black, gay, poor and ESL students. Right after this Texas will try to legalize slavery, again. Florida will be riding Texas’s coat tails and then the rest of the shit-hole states.
They are going to learn remotely? I recall the MAGA cult hyperventilating over remote learning when it was the emergency option to use in a life threatening pandemic. They said it was an infringement on their freedoms. But now it’s okay to do remote learning when the students being harmed are kids they don’t like.
Again none of what DeathSantis and the right is doing has nothing to do with protecting children from something that confuses them, sexualizes them, or makes them something they are not. This is about removing any representation from society of something Christian fundamentalist conservative dislike. This is about denying that LGBTQ+ people / kids exist. The goal is to indoctrinate kids into a 1950s social mindset in an attempt to lock them into a right wing republican way of thinking, of seeing the world. All because they can not accept nor adjust to the current society. They don’t want to allow others to live openly as who they really are with equality to themselves. They want a society where whites were automatically privileged and Christianity was forced on kids and prevalent in society. It is about forcing how they live on everyone. Republicans understand they are a minority party whose members are dwindling and dying out. Most conservatives are older white people. Instead of changing the party to appeal to more people, the party wants to force kids to be indoctrinated in to their views with no other representation. The republican leaders want to create their voters rather than appeal to those voters. Some religions are against higher education because their kids are exposed to different ways of thinking as adults than was forced on them as kids. That is why Christians had to create their own colleges and universities. Same with republicans and higher educations. Older teens would move away from restrictive conservative homes / communities to the wider more progressive view of looking at the world and they would often change their way of thinking before. Conservative religious republicans can not tolerate that and so again have to indoctrinate students at all levels. Florida is the first state that the experiment is being pushed, despite the majority of the public against it. Hugs
A quote from the article.“We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,” Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU as a whole. He reiterated that sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is “fair” to say PragerU indoctrinates children. “It’s true we bring doctrines to children,” Prager told the group. “But what is the bad of our indoctrination?”
Critics of the material approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis say it aims to influence young minds. Its founder says that’s true.
In teaching materials from PragerU that were approved by the state of Florida, time-traveling brother and sister Leo and Layla are the main characters in animated videos that take them back into history to meet important people. In this video, they meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [ Courtesy of PragerU ]
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly says he opposes indoctrination in schools. Yet his administration in early July approved materials from a conservative group that says it’s all about indoctrination and “changing minds.”
The Florida Department of Education determined that educational materials geared toward young children and high school studentscreated by PragerU, a nonprofit co-founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, was in alignment with the state’s standards on how to teach civics and government to K-12 students.
The content — some of which is narrated by conservative personalities such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson — features cartoons, five-minute video history lessons and story-time shows for young children and is part of a brand called PragerU Kids. And the lessons share a common message: Being pro-American means aligning oneself to mainstream conservative talking points.
“We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,” Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU as a whole. He reiterated that sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is “fair” to say PragerU indoctrinates children.
“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,” Prager told the group. “But what is the bad of our indoctrination?”
The governor’s office and the Florida Department of Education declined to say how PragerU’s mission and statements align with state law and DeSantis’ vow to ensure Florida classroom instruction does not indoctrinate or persuade students to accept a specific viewpoint.
PragerU is not an accredited university, and it publicly says the group is a “force of good” against the left. It’s a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that produces videos that touch on a range of themes, including climate policies (specifically how “energy poverty, not climate change” is the real crisis), the flaws of Canada’s government-run health care system (and how the American privatized system is better), and broad support for law enforcement (and rejection of Black Lives Matter). In some cases, the videos tell kids that their teachers are “misinformed” or “lying.”
Some videos talk about the history of race relations and slavery. In one video, two kids travel back in time to meet Christopher Columbus, who tells them that he should not be judged for enslaving people because the practice was “no big deal” in his time. Columbus argued to the kids that he did not see a problem with it because “being taken as a slave is better than being killed.”
In another video titled “A Short History of Slavery” and narrated by Owens, she says that the first thing kids need to know is that “slavery was not invented by white people” and that it also took place in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She also says “white people were the first to put an end to slavery” when it was abolished by Britain in 1834.
“After centuries of human slavery, white men led the world in putting an end to the abhorrent practice. That includes the 300,000 Union soldiers, overwhelmingly white, who died during the Civil War,” Owens says, while adding that “no one, regardless of skin color, stands guiltless,” noting that white slaves have also existed.
In a statement, Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said the state agency “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,” Palelis said. She added that PragerU Kids did not submit a bid to be included in 2022-23 instructional material list, but did not answer when asked if it had submitted a bid for the 2023-24 school year.
In teaching materials from PragerU that were approved by the state of Florida, time-traveling brother and sister Leo and Layla are the main characters in animated videos that take them back into history to meet important people. In this video, they meet Thomas Jefferson. [ Courtesy of PragerU ]
Florida approves PragerU content for use in schools
That type of content can now be used in Florida classrooms at the discretion of schools. The option is becoming available as the DeSantis administration and Republican lawmakers add other right-leaning educational choices to students, including a Classic Learning Test, revised K-12 standards and an overhaul of college-level course offerings.
Adrienne McCarthy, a Kansas State University researcher who co-authored a case study on PragerU after viewing hundreds of its videos, said in an interview that the content has a “very strong agenda.”
“The videos have this very strong us-versus-them dichotomy, and it’s usually the evil, immoral leftists versus the moral Judeo-Christian right,” McCarthy said. “They are attacking culture and trying to change rhetoric.”
With colorful animation, catchy melodies and adventurous child protagonists, the content is seemingly harmless and friendly, she says. But she argued the content could potentially serve as a “gateway for right extremism.”
“If we’re teaching ideologies that overlap with far-right groups, and that becomes normalized, then it’s easier for those far-right groups to become more brave and grow,” McCarthy said.
Melissa Streit, the chief executive officer of PragerU, said in an interview that the group’s content is meant to “create an even playing field” in schools — and that the only ones accusing them of indoctrinating students with a right-wing ideology are “probably the teachers unions,” which she said don’t want to lose control of the system.
Teachers unions have criticized the organization. In a video posted on TikTok, Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar said the group has a “political agenda” as it goes over some of its content.
“We believe in teaching an honest history, a complete history. We believe in teaching the truth,” Spar says in the video. “Teachers are not pushing an agenda, they are pushing to educate children. This (PragerU) is pushing an agenda. You don’t have to take my word for it, check it out for yourselves. This is part of the agenda of Ron DeSantis.”
Streit defended the group’s content and messaging in a phone interview.
“To label PragerU as right wing, one should also label at the same time virtually 80% of what’s in American schools right now as extreme left wing,” Streit said. “The ideology that we promote is a pro-American ideology, the ideology of which America was essentially built upon that has created this nation. But we are not a political enterprise, we are a pro-American enterprise.”
Conservative activism in education
Streit said PragerU Kids was launched two years ago. Around the same time, groups like Moms for Liberty stepped into the mainstream political world, and school board meetings across the country became engulfed by partisan culture wars as parents and activists debated pandemic restrictions, race and gender issues.
“We launched because we realized that there are many parents who want their kids to learn more than what they’re learning in schools,” Streit said. “We are very, very big believers in education choice, and we believe that parents should be involved and have the right to really make sure that their kids are learning what it is that they believe that they should learn.”
In PragerU educational materials approved by the state of Florida, time-traveling brother and sister Leo and Layla are the main characters in animated videos that take them back into history to meet important people. In this video, they meet Supreme Court Justice John Marshall. [ Courtesy of PragerU ]
In Florida, the state approved the content to be used as a supplemental material in classroom instruction. It does not mean that PragerU will be writing the curriculum at a school, but that if a school approved the use of the material, a teacher could use it as an aid to teach a class.
The materials could be used starting in the upcoming school year, but some districts — including Broward, Miami-Dade, Pasco and Pinellas — say that curriculum guides remain under development and that no decisions have been made to accommodate PragerU content.
They said they have no plans to review the materials for inclusion, unless PragerU submits a bid to be considered.
Streit said the group believes in transparency and that anything that would be made available to classrooms would be made available online for parents to see.
The group’s website, prageru.com, includes links to dozens of video clips, its mission and information for those who want to learn and donate to their cause.
It also includes a list of its presenters, which include conservative activist and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk; David Rubin, a conservative commentator and political supporter of DeSantis; and Will Witt, a longtime influencer for PragerU and the editor-in-chief of the conservative media outlet The Florida Standard, which DeSantis and his office turn to frequently to amplify their message.
The website does not include information on who is creating the content or its reference sources.
When asked for more information on the content creators, Streit said there “are a lot of people involved” with different expertise, but that the group does not intend to disclose their names or credentials on their website because “we live in a world where people attack people who they disagree with.”
How PragerU came to Florida
Streit has found supporters in Florida. She said talks of bringing PragerU Kids to Florida — the first state in the nation to approve its content — began over the summer with Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and K-12 Chancellor Paul Burns.
“The state did not approach us,” Streit said. “I would say that we got to know each other through mutual friends and we started talking about how we can be helpful. It is not that they came and applied for us to do something.”
Before the initiative was launched in Florida, Streit said she also crossed paths with Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis. Streit did not specify when or where, but she said that is how she learned that the DeSantis family showed PragerU videos to their young kids.
“So I imagine that if he thinks it’s good enough for his own children, why wouldn’t it be good enough for other Floridians?” Streit said.
DeSantis’ office did not respond when asked if this was true.
Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek contributed to this report.
.@GovRonDeSantis repeatedly has said he opposes indoctrination in schools. His administration has approved the use of materials from @prageru, whose founder says his group is all about indoctrination and “changing minds." https://t.co/FAeQjGI5NI
The REASON you have to indoctrinate children is because if you waited till high school or college to educate persons about religion, there would almost no religious people.
Seriously, a college class explaining (for the first time) to a student that the world was created in 6 days and woman from Adam’s rib, the ark, crucifixion, etc. The teacher would struggle to be heard over the laughter.
High school students are a MAJOR, MAJOR target. Young Life Ministries has it down to a science. They start by recruiting the cool kids, the jocks from the football and basketball teams especially. They then use the jocks to recruit the average kids that are dying to fit in. And then they gently pressure the kids to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Often with a version of Liar, Lunatic or Lord. ( conveniently leaving out the option of Legend). They got me and my sister. I got out. Not my sister.
Oh thank you for admitting it’s indoctrination. Makes the inevitable lawsuits easier when you come out and say you’re trying to use schools to indoctrinate kids
Yeah, this is clearly a violation of separation of church and state. Especially profiting off of taxpayers dollars. If only there was a SCOTUS that would enforce that..
Specifically, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. “Held: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.”
That is to say, while a school district cannot push religion, a teacher or group of teachers or teachers and administrators can as long as they at least make it seem like they are acting under their own authority and not under government order.
Unfortunately if they have people in the right positions of political power, it doesn’t matter how few in number they are – they still can wield incredible power over the lives of others.
