PragerU, a conservative organization that produces educational videos that often question left-wing orthodoxy, is now an approved vendor for Florida public schools. The Florida Board of Education approved the use of PragerU videos as a source of information, saying that the company’s videos aligned with the state’s revised civics and government standards.
And, boy, is the left-wing climate cult upset about the prospect of schoolchildren hearing facts and opinions that don’t conform with their “climate change is an existential threat to life as we know it” narrative.
“By teaching future generations blatant lies and propaganda and … climate denialism that is in direct contradiction to scientific fact,” said Raymer Maguire of the Cleo Institute, a climate-hysteria think tank based in Miami, “we are setting up our future generations to not have the tools and the education they need to tackle what is arguably the greatest crisis that they’re going to face in their lifetime.”
According to Maguire, PragerU videos are denying a reality that is blatantly obvious to him and his peers.
“What they’re doing is completely denying the nearly universally accepted scientific fact that humans burning carbon is resulting in us having the climate impact that we feel today,” Maguire added.
Or, perhaps, what’s happening is that schoolkids in Florida might get an opinion different from the left-wing dogma on not just climate, but several other issues as well.
But Maguire and the Cleo Institute aren’t about to allow such free speech to occur without attempting to intervene.
“We are mobilizing our members and organizers across the state to speak with their local school board members,” Maguire said. “Because the activists, the voters, the people on the ground, can help to help grow the momentum to reject this on a county-wide level across the state.”
Some counties have already announced they would not use PragerU videos.
”I believe this should not be utilized, so I asked the chief academic officer if it would be used in Pinellas County schools, and I was informed that the district has no plans of adding these resources to [the] curriculum,” said Caprice Edmond, a Pinellas County school-board member.
Some educators are upset that the Florida Board of Education has, essentially, given educators the green light to use PragerU videos without the consent of the school district.
“And throughout the state of Florida, teacher contracts largely protect them to have the autonomy to build this in their lessons should they choose to,” said Jessica Wright, a former teacher who is now the vice president of the nonprofit Florida Freedom to Read Project. “And so a district may be able to say, ‘we don’t recommend this, it’s not in our curriculum maps, we do not promote it being used,’ but the teacher could still have the autonomy to use it, and virtually have no negative repercussions for it, because it’s been endorsed and promoted by the state.”
So, it’s wrong for a teacher to go off-script in their lessons once in a while? Isn’t that the type of thing that teachers unions have been fighting for for decades?
Marissa Streit, PragerU CEO, confirms Wright’s fear that the Florida Board of Education’s approval will allow teachers to use the organization’s videos without fear of being fired.
“We have seen that our schools have been hijacked by the left. They have been politicized, they have been used by union bosses, they have been doing everything under the sun not for our children,” Streit said.
“And so we have launched PragerU Kids and we started providing great ‘edutainment,’ educational entertainment for children across America. But we didn’t just stop there. Now we’re actually making turnkey curriculum. Content for your schools. And the state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor. This means that if you are a teacher in Florida, you cannot be fired for using PragerU content,” she added.
It’s important to note that the Florida Board of Education does not require the use of the PragerU videos — it only allows them to be shown as part of a balanced curriculum. But that’s not something the political Left and climate alarmists can allow. Allowing students to see alternatives to the spurious narratives they’re teaching as facts might make some students question those narratives.
