Last year, Americans United sounded the alarm about videos by PragerU being offered in public schools. The videos, we noted, are produced by a Christian Nationalist outfit that’s hostile to separation of church and state. They’re historically inaccurate and reflect fundamentalist Christian thought on social issues.
Unfortunately, this material, often produced as cartoons for young audiences, continues to make inroads in our nation’s public schools. The Washington Post reported recently that six states – Florida, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Montana, Arizona and Louisiana – have approved the videos for optional use in classrooms.
Despite its name, PragerU is not a university. It’s a nonprofit founded by Dennis Prager, a conservative talk-radio show host. As AU noted last year, Prager “has espoused various anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women, anti-Muslim, anti-science views over the years” and his organization’s videos “whitewash colonialism and the history of slavery and racism in America; promote skepticism of climate change and science; scorn feminism and gender fluidity; support the so-called ‘parental rights’ movement that has attacked the freedom to learn in public schools, especially about race and LGBTQ+ issues; and promote other right-wing causes.”
Several PragerU videos AU pointed out, “undermine church-state separation and advance white Christian Nationalism.” In one especially offensive video, two time-traveling kids meet up with Christopher Columbus who assures them that his enslavement of Native populations in the West Indies was no big deal because slavery was common back then.
These videos, even on an optional basis, simply have no place in any public school. They make a mockery of the very idea of public education, which is exactly that – education, not indoctrination. Yet PragerU, with a budget reaching a staggering $68.7 million, has vowed to bring its videos to every state in the union.
Last year, Americans United began investigating how Florida and Oklahoma officials vetted Prager’s materials – or if they were reviewed at all. We’re still pressing public officials in those states to release the public documents we’ve requested.
“Public schools are the building blocks of our democracy. We owe it to our children to ensure their public schools provide a high-quality education that is free from religious coercion and rooted in facts, not theology or political ideology,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, said at the time.
There’s a role for you to play, too. Many public schools are on summer break, but if you hear of PragerU videos that advance Christian Nationalist ideology being used in a school near you in the fall, sound the alarm.
