This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
‘It’s amazing what happens when you speak clearly and you hold folks accountable’
Public school textbook publishers who signed up for the leftist “wokeism” agenda, including having ideological concepts like critical race theory and social emotional learning in their books, are finding out that that decision is biting back.
Because in some states those publications aren’t even being considered for use.
Dan Hart at the Washington Stand reports that eight publications recently were withdrawn from consideration in Oklahoma.
And in Florida officials said they have rejected 54 out of 132 textbooks for failing to meet the state’s standards, the report said.
All of those texts were in math.
The report said the withdrawal of eight books pending before the Oklahoma State Department of Education was the result of a 2020 state law that adds a layer of review to determine if texts are “of poor quality or contain controversial ideologies,” the report said.
Oklahoma Supt. Ryan Walters told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that it was just a matter of using common sense standards.
“It’s amazing what happens when you speak clearly and you hold folks accountable,” he explained. “We have been very clear — we are not going to allow woke indoctrination or classroom. We’re going to get back to a focus on the basics. … [O]ur parents have spoken loudly and clearly: get the woke ideology out, help our kids learn to read and do math. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
He said lawmakers decided the state would not do CRT in classrooms.
“We’re not going to allow all this sexualized material into the classroom, either,” he said.
The report explained such situations, already evident in Oklahoma and Florida, are growing.
Florida already confirmed 54 of the 132 proposed math texts were rejected for failing to meet the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking Standards or included CRT and SEL concepts.
Walters continued, “[I]t’s a multi-faceted effort to get this ideology out of schools. Number one, you’ve got to go get it out of your public schools. … But number two, you’ve got to get more of an ability for kids to go to private and Christian schools if their parents want them to. And so we have the first Christian charter school in the country that’s going to open up here in Oklahoma. … [T]hese Christian schools, you’re not going to see them wanting to go push some kind of radical atheist ideology. … [G]ive parents the opportunity to send their kids to Christian schools so that your kid is going to have a great education and not have this type of left-wing ideology in their day-to-day school.”
He said the state is not hurting for the lack of access to a couple of books, either.
“[T]here’s plenty of great materials out there. I mean, there [are] plenty of conservatives and Christians that are putting together materials. … The Left lost their mind here in Oklahoma when we made Prager University available statewide for every student [and] parent. … [T]here’s plenty of great material out there that talk about our founding. There’s plenty of great math material that can help students read on grade level. We’re never going to be held captive by woke companies trying to dictate to our state what our education system is going to look like.”
He said getting education “back on track” is just a matter of rejecting the teachers’ union’s ideologies about wokeism, and embracing parents.
Copyright 2023 WND News Center
