Why Would Florida Vote To Teach Racism, Climate Denial, & Fear?

Prager U a school started by fracking billionaires to indoctrinate Gen Z-ers and Millennials will guide Florida's educational path.

The goal of PragerU and its kids division is to provide an alternative to what it calls Woke-ism a perspective based on telling historical truths that make white racists uncomfortable trending in American public schools and media in recent years, its CEO told TIME. “America's education system has been hijacked by one side,” says Marissa Streit, PragerU CEO. “How are we going to have great teachers, if the teachers themselves are basically held hostage to one ideology? That is essentially what we're trying to break here.”

Prager U doesn't like truth, and it wants to teach children that despite the changes they see in the climate it is all a lie and the warming of oceans, superstorms, food shortages and invasive species is absolutely normal. Nothing to see here as long as we can continue using fossil fuels it will all work out. Prager hopes Florida will be the launchpad into other states for its extreme "Right Wing" views. Florida recently became the first state to officially approve PragerU, an unaccredited non-profit organization, and their newly launched PragerU Kids content to be used in the K-12 public school curriculum. Some question this decision as Prager U is self described as an Infotainment company meaning what they espouse is to be considered entertainment and opinion not truth!

Despite this fact the state's decision allows teachers to use the group's educational content, mainly composed of short video clips, as "supplemental materials" in classrooms. PragerU describes itself as a pro-American voice that provides an "alternative to the dominant left wing ideology in culture, media and education." It's named for co-founder, conservative talk show host Dennis Prager. But critics have called it out as not Pro American just Pro White Christian Americans. Prager U has been lambasted for promoting anti-immigration theories, downplaying systemic racism, and promoting other right-wing ideas such as the Lost Cause mythology that claims the Civil War was not fought over slavery despite the fact every leader of the Confederacy stated it was a war being fought to keep slavery.

Now, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its Florida chapter are calling on the Department to "clarify and reject any relationship between the Islamophobic Prager University and Florida schools." As noted on its website, “Prager University is not an accredited academic institution and does not offer certifications or diplomas.” According to a Rewire profile, “Dennis Prager, has historically fought against what he describes as ‘liberal’ evils—marriage equality, feminism (equal rights and pay For women(, and multiculturalism.” Prager U's ideology is against the support of any group, ethnicity or culture that is not White and Christian!

PragerU is essentially a media propaganda company which publishes videos questioning the science on the extent that fossil fuels' contribute to climate change and in fact deny that climate change is an existential threat despite the fact that extreme temperature events severely and routinely affect Florida. Historian Kevin Kruse went viral on Twitter for fact-checking a PragerU video about why the South predominantly votes Republican (PragerU argued the racism that once defined the South "doesn't exist anymore"), accusing it of "cherry-picking" info. Prager U is against teaching children about their respective histories unless its a conservative Right Wing or Prager sanctioned view of History that focuses on White American Christians. Dennis Prager gained notoriety by ranting about the existence of summer camps for Asian children who had been adopted from abroad. The camps provided the children with exposure to the cultures and faiths of the countries they came from. Prager seemed to think this was a horrible thing, that they should only be exposed to His perspective of American culture and the "Christian" faith of the adoptive family. He was particularly offended at exposure to Eastern faith traditions.

“It’s very important to recognize that these are not educational videos,” says Francesca Tripodi, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who found during 2017 research that college students raved about PragerU's trustworthiness as an academic source. “These videos are very explicitly created to get people to think a certain way... And the goal of PragerU is to advance a conservative agenda.”