Idaho superintendent partners with conservative — and controversial — curriculum provider

(Idaho Ed News) — State superintendent Debbie Critchfield announced Thursday her support for a new K-12 supplemental curriculum that espouses right-wing ideology. The curriculum includes opinion and advocacy videos that are not labeled as such, and materials presented by pundits with conservative ties and backgrounds.

PragerU, which describes itself as a nonprofit that “offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education,” created and provided the content at no cost to Idaho taxpayers or schools. PragerU has also partnered with education departments in South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Montana, Arizona and other states. 

In an interview with EdNews Thursday, Critchfield emphasized that the curriculum will not be “in a classroom tomorrow.” 

School boards will have to approve the content before teachers can use it in their classrooms. Critchfield’s announcement essentially serves as an invitation to trustees to consider it.

“Not every school district will find a place for this in their classrooms,” she said in an interview Thursday. “That’s OK.”

Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host, co-founded the nonprofit. Dan and Farris Wilks, brothers who made billions from natural gas fracking, have donated millions of dollars to PragerU. The Wilks brothers have been embroiled in controversy in Idaho; they have bought up tens of thousands of acres of forest land in central Idaho, closing off access to their holdings. 

Critchfield said those ties did not play into her decision to bring the curriculum to Idaho. Instead, she said she was approached by patrons from a Treasure Valley district who wanted to use the materials in their schools. Critchfield said she was approached in “June-ish,” and couldn’t remember which specific district the patrons were from. Critchfield said she “spent her summer vacation going over the materials” before deciding to offer it as a state-sanctioned resource.

A PragerU news release said its content underwent a “rigorous approval process” before Idaho accepted it. Critchfield said that process involved meetings between state-level content and curriculum staff members and PragerU representatives to ensure the curriculum aligned with Idaho’s content standards. Critchfield said it does. 

Some critics — including a South Carolina teachers’ union — have accused the nonprofit of trying to indoctrinate students.

But “you will have people that will point their finger to indoctrination on both sides of this fence,” Critchfield said Thursday. “It’s a tendency for some people to go to that as an immediate place without perhaps looking at it at face value, as far as the materials, not some of the associated political tones.”

Critchfield said she would consider introducing a similar supplemental curriculum with liberal or left-wing ideology if patrons requested it.
 

The Idaho Department of Education’s press release touted the curriculum’s Holocaust resources, and said they will help teachers meet a legislative resolution calling for “the adoption of age-appropriate Holocaust education.” 

The resolution says “the Holocaust stands as … a stark reminder of the dangers of prejudice, discrimination, and unchecked hatred” and that understanding the Holocaust is crucial for “combating anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice.”

It also calls for the IDE to “collaborate with relevant organizations and experts in Holocaust education to ensure that any proposed curriculum materials are accurate, comprehensive and aligned with best practices.”

EdNews asked Critchfield if PragerU content that says racism was not the driving factor behind the Holocaust could contradict the intent of the resolution. 

“I don’t know how to comment on that,” Critchfield said. “Once I start commenting on every element of every supportive piece of information, I think that opens us up … to anything that is brought into the classroom.”

She said her role is to make sure curriculum aligns with standards. “Once that takes place, the local boards have the ability to decide and answer that question for themselves.”

Critchfield recently committed to helping close academic achievement gaps between Native American students and their peers by hiring a new Indian Education director and tasking that individual with identifying and making available more content that is culturally relevant to Indigenous students. 

PragerU’s content includes a number of videos that contain controversial views regarding Native Americans, such as a video that says “that narrative of the ‘stolen country’ or ‘Native American genocide’ does not stand up to scrutiny by any honest historian.”

EdNews asked whether some of the content undercuts her efforts to include accurate Native American perspectives in the classroom, and how she would respond to students or tribes who might feel attacked by the content. 

Critchfield pointed out that there are standards in fourth-grade history to learn about Native Americans. 

“Like any other supplemental … material, there may or may not be places that it’s applicable, and this may be one of those places where it isn’t,” she said. 

Asked whether some of the content could be harmful to Idaho’s minority students in particular, Critchfield said, “We don’t put out materials that are intentionally harmful to any student, not just minorities, but to anyone.”

She hopes that by bringing this curriculum to Idaho, it will provide “more choices for communities.”

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on October 24, 2024