What "back to school" means in the era of PragerU

[Celerity]

https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/08/what-back-to-school-means-in-the-era-of-prageru.html



After Hurricane Ian hit the west coast of Florida in Sept. 2022, it damaged five schools and destroyed three, displacing 2.5 million children from their normal routines. More than 168,000 kids were kept out of the classroom for weeks in the aftermath following the category 4 storm, with some kids missing as many as 100 school days. For the Reckon Report in September, we’re focusing on education. Public education has long been a flashpoint for debate in America. But in the last few years, school board meetings, school libraries and curricula at all levels of education have faced attacks, especially at the state and local levels. Most recently, that challenged curricula have included climate change denial and numerous other controversial issues related to race, gender and evolution.

As Hurricane Idalia rapidly strengthens on its path toward Northwest Florida and school kids settle into the beginning of their academic year, there’s no better time to transition from climate change to education and take a hard look at PragerU — the conservative education and media group that was recently permitted to show climate denial and other controversial videos to K-5 kids in the Sunshine State. The group has controversial takes on a wide range of topics, including claiming the gender wage gap doesn’t exist, fascism is an idea of the left, and numerous videos criticizing African-American history and the detrimental effects of slavery.

While some counties in Florida have already said they will not show the videos, many will allow them in class. The move, which received the blessing of Gov. Ron DeSantis, is the culmination of decades of lobbying from right-wing education groups and parents who have traditionally targeted evolution and called for a greater emphasis on creationism. Those battles are usually fought behind closed doors by the elected board of education members in any given state. In recent years, however, the topics up for debate have extended from African-American history to basic interpretations of the Constitution. Now, climate change is firmly part of the alternative education debate and is spreading nationwide.

A quick look back

PragerU’s ascent from a fringe media group to the conservative mainstream has partially taken these debates out of school board meeting rooms and dropped them directly into the public domain. Just last week, a Republican member of the State Board of Education in Texas announced that all of PragerU’s resources would be rolled out to public school children in the state. Julie Pickren made the announcement with PragerU’s CEO, Marissa Streit. In the joint video, Pickren, present at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, said, “We are definitely ready to welcome PragerU into the great state of Texas.”

snip