Just days before Virginia Republicans will choose their nominee for governor on May 8, every major candidate in the race has signed onto a pledge in which they commit to “save our schools” from anti-American indoctrination–foreshadowing how the battle against “woke” education could play a major and perhaps decisive role in the fall campaign.
The pledge, organized by a new group dedicated to fighting against left-wing radicalism in schools, 1776 Action, asks candidates to promise to restore “patriotic education” and to prevent schools from teaching concepts that divide students by race and gender, such as “Critical Race Theory.”
Not just in Virginia but in the culture war currently raging throughout the nation, K-12 classrooms have become a central battleground. As AMAC Newsline has reported, the Biden Department of Education recently released a rule that would direct federal taxpayer dollars to support teaching a radical version of American history and to promote the idea that America is a fundamentally racist country.
Shortly after taking office, President Biden rescinded President Trump’s Executive Order establishing the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission. Created in response to attacks on American history by efforts such as the New York Times’ 1619 Project, the 1776 Commission sought to “better enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding.”
Inspired by this effort, 1776 Action and others are picking up where the Trump Administration left off. They aim to push back on left-wing indoctrination at the state and local level–seeking to hold school board members, state legislators, and gubernatorial candidates accountable for brainwashing America’s youth.
1776 Action’s “Save Our Schools,” Pledge asks candidates to take “concrete steps” to “[promote] a curriculum that teaches that all children are created equal, have equal moral value under God, our Constitution and the law, and are members of a national community united by our founding principles.”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a rising star within the Republican Party, became the first candidate to sign the Pledge earlier this week. Along with Dr. Ben Carson, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban, she penned a joint op-ed citing concerns that “there are far too many classrooms where our children and grandchildren are not learning about the positive revolution in human affairs set in motion by our Founders.”
While Governor Noem is not up for reelection until 2022, Virginia is one of three states with Governors races this year (including the California recall). It could prove to be a testing ground for how candidates talk and organize around the issue of patriotic education.
The major candidates for the Virginia Republican nomination who signed the Pledge this week include businessmen Glenn Youngkin and Pete Snyder, former Trump administration official Sergio de la Pena, former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Kirk Cox, and state Senator Amanda Chase.
As 1776 Action President Adam Waldeck said in a statement, “It’s wonderful to know that at least one of the major parties will have a nominee on the ballot who is committed to proudly defending the legacy of great Virginians such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.”
At a campaign event earlier this year, Snyder derided “this nutty critical race theory stuff that they’re trying to get in our schools” and suggested “a 1776 Project” as an alternative to the 1619 Project. At an event last week, Youngkin similarly said that “critical race theory in our schools is actually a political agenda.” He also promised that a potential Youngkin administration would use “1776” as a model for teaching history, along with committing to installing a conservative state superintendent of schools and replacing the “entire school board of education.”
In a statement after signing the Pledge, Kirk Cox said, “our children should be taught to take pride in our nation and know that American Exceptionalism lives on despite the left’s best efforts to poison it. As Governor, I will end the use of Critical Race Theory in our schools and curriculum. We will teach the full Virginia story and the full American story, and we’ll do it in a way that brings people together, not divides us.”
As the Republican Party gears up for a must-win midterm cycle to halt the advance of Biden’s radical agenda, it seems all but certain that the issue of patriotic education will be front and center–and all eyes will be on Virginia to see what happens.
Need the nationwide, as applicable
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Everything that is taught beyond basic math is evil in public schools and nowadays the evil has crept into math with “there is no one right answer.”
This is an important fact that our schools are infiltrated by far leftist teachers brought up from the liberal colleges like Harvard, Yale, Princeton just typifies why our kids are going against the greatness of America and our history of saving the world from communists, fascists and hate America types. The Antifa, BLM crowds seem to filled with young minds full of mush who are easily led because of immaturity the fact they think it’s cool to be a rioter being with like minded weak individuals that seem to thrive on the cayuse of looting and ultimate burning down businesses many times owned by blacks in black communities. Democrats are totally at fault, their blue cities have been attacked over and over again and they seem to not be concerned whatsoever that it’s happening. Thank a Democrat for all the disruption and cayuse we are seeing.
Children need to learn like I was taught back in the day! Responsibility, accountability, respect, skills, etc.
NOTHING will ever change until there are TERM LIMITS———————for both Congress and the SCOTUS !!!!!!!!!!
Isn’t this what communism does?
Brainwashing starts at home; with networks such as NBC. Remembering the scenario of a protestor being interviewed on NBC. She was sitting on the ground ‘all tuckered out’; after helping the toppling of President George Washington’s statue! There she sat on the ground, being interviewed by a journalist as if she were a heroine! She was not being arrested; she was being interviewed as if she was doing us all a favor. That has set a precedent for everybody; including school children. President George Washington literally gave his life for this country. Many of the liberals have stood by; and watched this desecration of our ‘Nations Founding Fathers’ without so much as a yawn. Some of the liberal politicians have aided, abetted, and participated in the destruction of historical national monuments. These are the same politicians who are behind destroying ‘American History’ in our schools. It is a fashionable trend with certain liberals. It teaches to disrespect the very patriots who founded this country.
I pray that whomever the Republican candidate is in Virginia that this issue wins big time! If we are going to remain a truly free republic, this race crap has got to end! We are ALL equal in the eyes of God and as MLK said, it’s content of character that matters NOT skin color! The sooner we get rid of this racist crap in schools and defeat this “woke” crap, the sooner our country heals and we can defeat the socialist march on this nation!
Yes, the 1619, CRT is very regressive. Teaching American History can acknowledge deficiencies of the past while espousing that the country, like an individual, is a work in progress; striving to work toward the ideals of the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Amendments.
America took a real nosedive when the undocumented racist muslim was placed in the WH in ’09!
He currently is serving his third term using the DUMMY as his mouthpiece————————–
Now that the schools will have easier access to marijuana, maybe the kids will be too stoned to learn this garbage. I’m outraged! So much so that I’m out of here just as soon as I can pack up and find greener pastures. Hell, I’m 60! I’m old enough to move to Florida! Virginia is a lost cause.
and in my Texas town, all the conservative candidates were defeated. Leftists are clogging the town with apartments, inviting all the leftists from other states to come change theb state blue. and rino house members, that won the majority & control the house, senate, & governorship, put DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE OF IMPORTANT HOUSE COMMITTEES! We didn’t vote for democrats, but thanks to rinos in the house leadership, the democrats are in charge of the house!
Critical race theory indoctrination in our schools must be stopped. I have heard horror stories and fear for our youth. Hold your school boards and elected officials responsible.
There is an excellent article in this issue of Imprimis vie Hillsdale College. It spells out exactly what the Marxist Critical Race Theory is and how we can stop it. Thanks for this article, AMAC.
Everyone is pledging is there anyone doing?
The Teachers Unions need to be abolished! They are running the country under cover of darkness by influencing and strong-arming congressional representatives. They are writing the law with regard to the future of Education in this country and that has to stop!! The thought of my grand daughter being forced to sit and listen to a political agenda makes me cringe. These people are evil. But this is what happens when you take God out of any equation.
So sad that children are not getting proper education with a curriculum that is fraught with divisiveness. We learned all about our good history as well as the bad in our history that we learned from. We learned and had homework to take home. Everything was open for our parents and not hidden so that they did not know what we were being taught.
We need far more than simply a pledge. We need the following, if you actually want to change the direction of public education in this country:
1) Decertification of all the teachers’ unions in this country. This can only be done at the federal level, as the unions cross multiple state lines. Virtually all these teachers’ unions are now nothing but political advocacy organizations holding the nation’s children and their parents hostage to the will of the left. They are deciding when and how schools are allowed to open and what is allowed to be taught in the classrooms. The local school boards have been reduced to essentially useless rubber stamps of what comes down from Washington and the teachers’ unions. The teachers’ unions have even bullied the CDC and to re-write their recommendations on Covid-19 to correspond to what the unions what them to be.
2) As the article correctly points out, the Biden administration is moving forward with pushing critical race theory onto the public education system of this country. Thus expanding the indoctrination process even further. Unfortunately, elections have consequences. Even those that were “modified” (happy AMAC?) to ensure Biden won. So you won’t stop this short of replacing the Democrat occupants of the WH with an administration committed to constitutional values. To date, the establishment GOP has been all over the map with respect to what they will actually commit to doing in regards to this issue. Many seem content to simply use this issue as a fund raising exercise for 2022 and beyond. The GOP needs to actually take a much harder stand on this issue and many others.
So while a pledge may sound good, what is needed is concrete actions to stop the growing trend towards the public education system being nothing more than political indoctrination system funded by the American taxpayer.
Psalm 119:126 “It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have mmade void thy law.”
The issue is really very simple. Our schools should be teaching “facts” and not “fiction” regarding our Founding Fathers, our Republic, and why and what makes America the greatest nation in all history.
Has there been racism in our nation in the past? Well, yes, of course. Nobody denies that we had slavery. Nobody denies that there was segregation after slavery was abolished. Nobody denies that blacks (and other minorities) faced discrimination of various kinds down through the years.
But to ascribe that America is fundamentally a racist society is ludicrous and absurd in this day and age, and flies in the face of reality today. Regardless of race, everyone has the opportunity to better himself or herself in our society. By working hard, the American Dream is very much attainable to a significant extent by the majority of Americans.
Will some people fail to reach their desired goals? Of course! There is NO guarantee that everyone will be equal at the FINIASH LINE. What is guaranteed is that everyone is more or less equal at the STARTING LINE! What happens between the starting line and the finish line is pretty much up to the individual and what they do and accomplish to move ahead in life.
Those who play the “race card” are either slime-ball politicians who seek some political advantage or power to which they are not entitled, or their minions among the electorate who view themselves as “victims.” And this self-anointment as a victim serves to elevate that person to becoming a “professional victim” with a distorted view of entitlements to everything that they failed to earn for themselves! All this leads to divisiveness in our society and a false narrative in the mindset of those who are disaffected by their current circumstances. Victimhood is a life choice, not something imposed on any individual!
I am all for giving everyone a hand up, but NOT a hand out!
Any VA Democrat who is a true American MUST vote against the “punk” McAuliffe and all who support him. They are all haters–of the US and GOD!
I’m a retired teacher and coach with 37 years of service. I wouldn’t even think about this profession this day and time. Many youngsters are not getting educated. They are getting indoctrinated. Administrators are turning into politicians. They are overpaid and doing a lot of sitting on their duff {a common trait of a politician}. A good cure for the “sickness” in education is for the U S government to mind its own business. DEFEND OUR COUNTRY!! PROTECT OUR CITIZENS!!! The most dangerous words in America = “WE ARE HERE FROM THE GOVERMENT. WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU OUT
Ben;
I would like to know why the Left, continually, is hell-bent on destroying our GREAT Country. What do ‘they’ have to gain?
A Voucher system will solve all the problems. Give parents the money via a Voucher so they can send their kids to any school they want. The teachers unions will wither and die if they don’t change.
You guys are doing great job reporting what really going on accurately. Great job !
Silly to think that teachers willing to teach such drivel are redeemable. We are seeing both moral and intellectual in these teachers and it is not going to change just because you change the published book/curriculum. The problem can only be solved by privatizing the school system with vouchers.
The answer to many problems is to make teachers unions illegal. For that matter all public service unions, who ate technically organized against “The People”, should be brought into question.
The creation of the Department of Education as a cabinet position and the subsequent federalization of education has led to the near monopoly of the teachers’ unions over curriculum in our schools in every state. And the requirement that colleges of education be accredited by organizations that lean left in their sympathies has led to traditional history being devalued. I say this as a long-time teacher and speech pathologist.