Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters has once again garnered mostly negative publicity and coverage of his recent decision to “partner” with Prager U to endorse using the conservative organization’s videos and education materials in Oklahoma classrooms.
Walters endorsed this organization by saying “This expansion of our available resources will help ensure high quality materials rich in American history and values will be available to our teachers and students.”
Prager U is not a university; it is a nonprofit organization that describes its mission to “promote American values through the creative use of digital media.” The organization received $65.5 million in revenue in 2021, mostly through donations. There is no contract and no cost. Oklahoma joins Florida as the second state to promote this organization’s materials.
Prager U is definitely an organization with an agenda to promote a conservative viewpoint of current events and issues. Dennis Prager, a former talk show host, is its founder. It uses animation and conservative influencers, such as Candace Owen, to provide 6–10-minute presentations on particular topics from a conservative point of view. Many of the videos look to “debunk” liberal agendas or talking points.
Of course, any media that focuses on conservative talking points is immediately attacked by the mostly liberal media and organizations for its “deceitful” or “deceptive” messaging on the topics liberals hold dear. Those who attack the organization particularly point to Prager U videos “whitewashing” the issue of slavery or downplaying the impacts of climate change. You can watch the videos on YouTube and come to your own conclusion.
I went online to see if there is any left-leaning organization similar to Prager U. There really isn’t one as well-funded as of yet; however, there is an organization called The Gravel Institute, which according to information on the group is the “progressive” counterpoint founded in 2020 specifically to counter Prager U. It’s named for its founder, Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska and an obscure former presidential candidate.
Both Prager U and The Gravel Institute call their videos factual and label the other group’s messages as lies or deceit. They both use inflammatory language, such as calling the messaging of the other partisan group’s ideas as “indoctrination” and “misinformation.”
So, should state education departments be in the business of endorsing or promoting any content from one or more partisan organizations? I think most of us – no matter what our political persuasion – would say, of course not.
Let’s face it, conservatives, if a state superintendent decided to “partner” with the Gravel Institute, what would your reaction be?
Walters believes Prager U is important to counteract what he continuously calls “indoctrination” of liberal ideas and viewpoints in public education. Yes, there are certain outlying instances when educators step over the line. We see news coverage of those instances nearly every day. It is the job of local school boards and districts to monitor and be responsible for curriculum and ideas being promoted in classrooms. By far, school districts do a good job of this. And when they don’t, patrons usually call them out.
When it comes to content like Prager U or The Gravel Institute, most school districts won’t even consider promoting these to their students. Many school districts have already come out saying they don’t intend to use Prager U materials. The districts point out that they will use Oklahoma’s Academics Standards and will continue to use their board-approved policies for selecting district-adopted curriculum materials.
That’s the right approach. There’s no room for incorporating one-sided political viewpoints in public school curriculum. There should be no left-wing or right-wing ideology in public schools. Walters’ continued infatuation with this issue screams of the same type of “indoctrination” he purports to fight.
Cindy Allen 