It’s deja vu all over again. A coalition of government- and billionaire-funded nonprofits has a “bipartisan” plan for national curriculum goals, this time concerning U.S. history and government. Today this “state-led” coalition is releasing a major report they hope will get the attention of the Biden administration and state governors to “collaboratively” enact their vision nationwide.
Remember, these sorts of national plans are supported by people on the right and left, so there can be no need for further investigation or any public questioning. The experts have got this problem all figured out. Your children and the nation’s future are in their hands. Trust them, these are experts under whose leadership the nation’s civic and historical knowledge not only hasn’t improved but may be at the worst point in possibly all of American history, because of — oops, I mean in spite of their best efforts!
More than 300 “leading scholars” have spent 17 months putting together a “roadmap” for “what and how to teach integrated K-12 history and civics for today’s learners.” It’s a “cross-ideological conversation about civic learning and history at a time when our country needs it the most,” so don’t worry your pretty little heads about anything and let the experts sort it out! What could go wrong?
What, you heard that the Smithsonian is saturating its exhibits and materials with social-justice saturated fake history and forking over good taxpayer money for racist propaganda, and therefore you’re a bit concerned about their involvement in this project? What’s wrong with you, the Smithsonian is an old and venerable American institution! Republican senators are putting billions of dollars behind its promotion of cultural Marxism!
Did we mention this project is also bipartisan? The education secretaries for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama are all on board, of course. They presided over a massive decline in U.S. education quality and increase in bureaucracy, so you know it’s a good idea!
The DC uniparty has just the perfect solution for American kids’ dangerous ignorance about their nation’s founding principles, system of government, and history. It’s making them into political activists! It’s called “action civics.” Isn’t that exciting? Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were big fans. Remember them? So are Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, those models of respect for the U.S. Constitution!
No, kids don’t need to know anything to lobby their local, state, and national governments, that would ruin the effect. Everyone knows learning is boring! What’s fun is action! Action civics! You know, like the nation saw in the past year or so, all those refreshing young people protesting in the streets for racial justice.
That’s the kind of civic entrepreneurship we’re looking for, not the boring conventional entrepreneurship these civic entrepreneurs destroyed to the tune of an estimated $2 billion. That’s old news, just like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Didn’t you hear those were written by slaveowners like George Washington to keep black people in chains?
No, what we want is democracy. That’s why this project is called Educating for American Democracy. Out with that old constitutional republic stuff, it’s so racist. RAY-CIST. What’s new and hip is a living constitution, just like RBG fought for. The Educating for American Democracy Project has a brilliant new report, see, all about why the nation’s dearth of civic knowledge demands a solution from “cooperative federalism,” just like Common Core was the obvious solution to the nation’s shamefully poor-quality math and English education!
Even though this initiative is being created in almost exactly the same way the Common Core rules for math and English were created, this is nothing at all like Common Core. For one thing, it was created by committees of unelected participants funded partially by government and partially by private organizations not subject to transparency laws like open meetings and open records requests. Wait, that’s just like Common Core.
But this is NOT, let me repeat, NOT a national curriculum at all. It’s only a set of guidelines, lesson plans, curriculum design frameworks, and stuff like that — just like Common Core. Um, I mean… This is just like Common Core but it’s totally NOT AT ALL LIKE COMMON CORE. Just trust me, brand-name Republicans are involved. Just like with Common Core!
Why would anyone on the right oppose this — almost every single committee for this project includes the one conservative guy we could find to put his name on this thing so we could introduce him to Republicans nervous about this idea. Okay, actually, it’s maybe 10 conservatives out of more than 300. They’re not really always comfortable identifying themselves, not sure why, especially since they are paid to be “cross-partisan,” just like those super-useful Never Trumpers we rent out for special events at a great discount.
Regardless, 10 conservatives would never get steamrolled on a project like this, right? Just ask the five genuine subject-area experts who signed onto the Common Core project and then retracted their support after it in no way resembled defensible curriculum requirements. They weren’t used and then discarded in a cynical attempt to hide this project’s flaws under the veneer of “transpartisanship” until it was too late. No way. Lefties never do that to conservatives. Ever.
No way action civics will get into place in states and then this project will be cited as the reason for far-left curriculum like that already happening in Massachusetts under the test run for this national project. That was touted as “bipartisan,” too, and run by the many of same people and organizations that are about to boost this national project.
Too bad, conservatives, you kicked at Leftist Lucy’s football again, ha! Thanks for playing! We love this game. Kick again, please! We’re counting on it.
I mean, Common Core was foisted on states by the Obama administration in exchange for federal funds. Joe Biden was there when that happened, and he would never govern like Obama, now, would he? No way, he’s way more aggressive than Obama was! And he yanked that divisive 1776 Commission Report on his first day in office, so you know his U.S. Department of Education supports what is best for children, not all that jingoistic “loving your country” crap!
Unity in hating America, that’s the goal here, and we’ve almost achieved it. We just need a bit more tinkering, okay, we haven’t got the formula quite right yet, those insurrectionist Trump voters are clouding Republican senators’ view a bit too much still. We’ve almost trained some to swat them away like gnats. John Cornyn, for sure. Just a few more years of cranked-up indoctrination combined with open borders in Texas, and Beto can finally replace him.
So for the sake of unity, just go along with reinforcing public schools as leftist indoctrination factories. Sing kumbaya with us and none of your precious little public school funds will get threatened. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to that money, would you? It’s for the children. And civics. Conservatives like civics, right? Pay no attention to all the leftists behind the curtain.