Nationalizing “Woke” Education

AMAC Exclusive
Written By: Joshua Charles

The culture war is coming to your children’s and grandchildren’s classrooms, all under the comforting and euphemistic name of the “Civics Secures Democracy Act of 2021.” Though the provisions of this proposed legislation are rife with confusing jargon and euphemisms, it’s fair to say that the bill’s objective is the national implementation of an Action Civics and Critical Race Theory curriculum throughout our entire educational system.

As pointed out in previous articles, Action Civics is essentially an approach to civics that replaces traditional instruction with political protest and lobbying, all for academic credit, of course.

It’s no secret that the left is intent on painting American history as simply one long story of oppression, undermining any justified sense of patriotism and admiration for our founding principles and Constitution.

In the words of National Review’s Stanley Kurtz, “we are headed toward an epic clash over the spread of uber-controversial pedagogies—Critical Race Theory and Action Civics—to America’s classrooms.”

The previous effort to federalize education took place under the Obama administration, which pushed the K-12 “Common Core” standards. However, the original Common Core advocates strategically did not include history and civics in their standards. Now, Common Core advocates (including some who label themselves conservatives) are teaming up with Critical Race Theory and Action Civics advocates to push national history and civics standards for the first time in the Civics Secures Democracy Act. And it’s not patriotic history and civics–it’s radical left history and civics.

The bill would appropriate $1 billion in federal money to support K-12 curriculum development, teacher training, and research on the teaching of history and civics. How this $1 billion is actually spent requires a very close reading of the legislative language.

On the Action Civics front, grants are awarded to programs based on “evidence-based practices”, which means activities that include “projects,” “experiential learning,” and “service learning,” all of which are terms that have been used to describe curriculums in which students are able to earn course credit for engaging in leftist protests and lobbying. It also includes programs that encourage “media literacy.” Predictably, “media literacy” education invariably directs students to media sources that articulate the Democrat position, and discourages the use of those sources deemed “fake news.”

On the Critical Race Theory front, the bill requires the Department of Education to “prioritize” programs that (i) “improve knowledge and engagement among students traditionally underserved,” (ii) “close gaps in civic knowledge and achievement among students of different income levels, racial and ethnic groups, and native languages,” and (iii) “integrate evidence-based practices,” the same term we previously saw used as a cover for Action Civics.

This sounds innocuous, but it isn’t. The concept of “equity” at the core of modern left-wing ideology is also at the heart of this bill.  Used in this context, equity means ensuring equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. And as Stanley Kurtz has pointed out, educational mandates recently imposed across the country illustrate precisely the types of programs that bills like this one help fund: programs where third graders deconstruct their racial identities and rank themselves by “power and privilege”; the adoption of the historically absurd 1619 Project as a basis for rewriting American history as simply one long narrative of “oppression,” “systemic racism,” and “marginalization”; and curriculums that erase anything that is deemed “Euro-centric”. All of this will be done, and is already being done, under the guise of serving the “traditionally underserved,” and “[closing] gaps in civic knowledge and achievement among students of different income levels, racial and ethnic groups, and native languages.”

The goal is not to teach these students to love their country and its founding principles, but rather to pursue leftist political objectives inspired by hatred and grievance along the ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and sexual categories of Identity Politics.

By providing cover for the marriage of Action Civics with Critical Race Theory, this bill essentially opens the door to implementing an agenda of indoctrination in America’s classrooms, enabling the overwhelmingly leftist bent of the education system to transform American youth into pawns for their own purposes—all in the name of academics.

Additionally, the bill brings the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) into the picture. The NAEP is responsible for issuing “the nation’s report card.” Some have envisioned using it to effectively impose a national curriculum through the federal government, enabling it to compare state programs and then issue grants based on criteria found in bills like the Civics Secures Democracy Act.

In short, the Civics Secures Democracy Act is an attempt to bring the most divisive aspects of left-wing politics into America’s classrooms at the behest of federal bureaucrats using vague euphemisms for ultra-left priorities, all under the guise of “civics.” The political goal is nothing less than the creation of a new “vanguard” of American youth with which to transform America.

For the sake of your children and grandchildren, make clear to your Congressman and Senator that you do not support the Civics Secures Democracy Act.