Arizona schools chief promotes conservative, 'woke'-free classroom resources
The Arizona Department of Education is partnering with the Prager University Foundation, a conservative nonprofit that creates educational videos, to offer free supplemental resources to the state’s K-12 classrooms.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced the partnership Wednesday as a largely symbolic endorsement — PragerU classroom resources are already available online for free, and nobody is required to use them. However, Horne will make those materials “more available” to educators by posting them to an Education Department website.
“The choice of the curricula to be used at the school district level is up to the school districts. They have that choice. We want to add to that choice,” Horne said.
PragerU Kids boasts a wide selection of children’s shows, books, magazines and worksheets void of “woke culture or agendas,” according to its website. CEO Marissa Streit said the organization began developing school partnerships and curriculum in response to education “being hijacked by the left” and politicized at the expense of children.
The organization’s website bills PragerU as a pro-American alternative to the “dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media and education.” Prominent conservative pundits such as Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens are among its content contributors.
Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Montana approved PragerU as an official public school vendor last year, according to the PragerU website, though Texas education officials have refuted that claim. New Hampshire also allows school credit for completing PragerU’s financial literacy module.
Critics have meanwhile accused the nonprofit of promoting harmful talking points on climate change and LGBTQ+ issues, along with watering down lessons that might cast America in a negative light. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., joined those critics in denouncing PragerU shortly after Horne announced the partnership on Wednesday.
“PragerU does not belong in Arizona schools. It’s masquerading as a serious educational resource when in reality it’s unaccredited right-wing propaganda,” Grijalva’s statement reads in part. “Just as Congressional Republicans want to ban books and eliminate diverse points of view, PragerU's intent is to indoctrinate our children with disinformation, mistruths and whitewash history.”
PragerU materials do not promote a political agenda, Streit said, but they do share an ideological viewpoint — “a patriotic, wholesome viewpoint.”
“The absurdity is that this entire hoopla and people getting all upset was never done when BrainPOP and Scholastic dominated the market, but suddenly, because we’re showing up just to give an option — an option — the intolerant group that has dominated the market is going frankly berserk,” Streit said.
During Wednesday's news conference, Horne said it is “unprofessional conduct” for teachers to use captive student audiences to push their ideology.
Horne said PragerU is objective, though he later added: “It’s alright for teachers to teach controversial views as long as both sides are presented, and the problem we’ve had is in some classes, only the extreme left side has been presented, so these present an alternative.”
Horne has been an outspoken critic of critical race theory, social and emotional learning, and what he sees as liberal indoctrination and political ideology in the classroom. Last March, he launched a hotline for concerned parents to report inappropriate lessons to the Education Department. That hotline has turned up about two dozen “real complaints” since and tens of thousands of prank calls, according to Education Department officials.
The department has not investigated those complaints’ accuracy or tracked their outcomes, according to a department spokesperson.
Reach the reporter at nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tom Horne promotes PragerU as classroom resource
