PragerU, the self-declared right-wing “indoctrination” outfit, has slipped its way into another statewide public education system. On Tuesday, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, announced the approval of PragerU materials for use in the state’s public schools, a move that Florida made earlier this year. “[PragerU is] challenging the left’s domination of academia, of education, and this is what has to happen,” Walters said in an interview with PragerU chief executive Marissa Streit. “It is of the utmost importance that we’re able to correct this leftist bend of history, get that radicalism out, and go back to teaching true history to our kids.”
A former history teacher, Walters touted his past use of PragerU materials in classrooms and linked his state’s partnership with the organization to a supposed battle between God-fearing capitalists and a secular left that forces “indoctrination” onto American students. “We have to get back to a point,” he said, “where young people understand…the free market and individual liberty and the Judeo-Christian values of our founders.” (For what it’s worth, Walters has also previously claimed that racism had nothing to do with the Tulsa Race Massacre.)
Despite what the name might imply, PragerU is not an accredited educational institution. It is a right-wing media nonprofit whose mission, according to cofounder Dennis Prager, is to propagandize to young people. “‘You indoctrinate kids’—which is true,” Prager said of his critics in July. “We bring doctrines to children. That’s a very fair statement, I said. But what is the bad about our indoctrination?”
PragerU Kids, the subsection of content that Florida and now Oklahoma have approved for use in public schools, has an extensive catalog of controversial material. In one PragerU Kids video, the narrator likens climate change skeptics to Jewish captives who fought the Nazis during World War II. Another video portrays British colonial expansion as a positive development in Indian history.
In July, the Florida Department of Education faced a significant backlash after becoming the first state to approve PragerU materials for public schools. Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, told Vanity Fair at the time that the decision was part of a broader effort to undermine public education and quality curriculum in the state.
For the moment, PragerU Kids videos are considered “supplemental resources,” and an Oklahoma Department of Education spokesperson told Tulsa public radio on Wednesday that it’s not yet been determined whether any of the content will be required curriculum in the state’s public schools. While teachers in Florida are not currently required to use the content, Spar said last month he worried the Florida Department of Education might soon “pressure districts to have PragerU used in their schools.”
Caleb Ecarma
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