8 Feb 15th–Feb 21st, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Dumbed Down Arizona public schools chief partners with right-wing propagandist. BY TJ L’HEUREUX T om Horne, the state school superintendent, is partnering with PragerU, making Arizona the fifth state to promote the controversial content creator that uses cartoon characters to downplay slavery and push conservative messages. Horne announced the partnership on Jan. 31, pledging to publicize PragerU’s materials on the website of the Arizona Department of Education. “It’s alright for teachers to teach contro- versial views, as long as both sides are presented,” Horne said. “The problem we’ve had is in some classrooms, only the extreme left side has been presented.” Phoenix New Times asked Horne what “left-wing” sites the Department of Education promotes or will promote. “I don’t know,” he said. Horne noted that choosing curricula is up to school districts and that PragerU materials are not required to be taught in classrooms. But Horne said his administra- tion will do “everything we can to let people know” the materials are available for use. PragerU was later added to the homepage of the department’s website under “Hot Topics.” PragerU CEO Marissa Streit leaned into criticism of the nonprofit’s materials. “We do have an ideological viewpoint,” Streit said. “You know, it is a sad state of affairs that actually hanging an American flag that is red, white and blue is a political issue and that if you don’t add a bunch of colors and rainbows then you’re suddenly a political bigot.” PragerU’s website describes the company as “the world’s leading conser- vative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.” Horne and Streit were joined at the announcement by several right-wing, elec- tion-denying, anti-LGBTQ+ and disinfor- mation purveyors from the Arizona Senate: Sens. Jake Hoffman, Anthony Kern, Wendy Rogers and Justine Wadsack. PragerU’s ‘whitewashed version of history’ Critics argue some PragerU content is one- sided and doesn’t meet the standards of what should be taught in schools. “PragerU’s hyperpartisan and substan- dard materials have no place in our schools, and educators know that, as do the local school board members who make decisions about curricula,” Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia said in a written statement. Kerry Baker, one of five members of the Paradise Valley Unified School District Governing Board, said that as a parent, she wouldn’t want her children watching PragerU’s videos. “It’s presenting to them a dumbed-down, whitewashed version of history,” Baker said. “If you choose to use it, you’re subjecting these kids to subpar learning. I thought we were supposed to be making test scores better and improving academics and focusing on reading, writing and math. I mean, that’s what they (Horne and his allies) all say,” she added. Some of the videos reviewed by New Times whitewash history with no factual basis for doing so, pairing the disinforma- tion with outlandish, absurd cartoons. A cartoon version of Frederick Douglass, the slave who became one of the best-known and most vocal opponents of slavery after his 1838 escape from it, says in one video, “Our founders created a system they thought would have slavery end gradually.” The quote is contrary to what Douglass is recorded to have said. Douglass preferred not to specu- late about the inten- tions of the founders. “It would be the wildest of absurdities, and lead to endless confusion and mischiefs, if, instead of looking to the written paper itself (the U.S. Constitution), for its meaning, it were attempted to make us search it out, in the secret motives, and dishonest intentions, of some of the men who took part in writing it,” Douglass said in an 1860 speech. In a cartoon video of children chatting with Christopher Columbus — whose 1492 arrival in the Americas started centuries of slavery, forced labor and mass killing of Indigenous Americans — the famed voyager asks the children, “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?” He then tells them it is “estupido” to “judge me by your stan- dards from the 21st century.” The video also paints Columbus as a secret opponent of slavery, which has no historical basis. In fact, it’s well-docu- mented that Columbus elected to ship 500 Indigenous people to Spain to be slaves, but they died on the voyage to Europe. Even after that, Dutch writer Hans Koning noted that Colombus wrote, “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.” The Douglass and Columbus videos are two of 69 history videos on PragerU’s website, which features 3,782 total videos. “PRAGERU’S HYPERPARTISAN AND SUBSTANDARD MATERIALS HAVE NO PLACE IN OUR SCHOOLS.” | NEWS | | NEWS | >> p 10 PragerU CEO Marissa Streit cut the ribbon near tables of the company’s materials as Arizona school superintendent Tom Horne watched. (Photo by TJ L’Heureux)
