PHOENIX — Arizona School Superintendent Tom Horne has put his seal of approval on a right-wing organization's teaching tools for state classrooms.
"In some classrooms, the extreme left side has been presented," Horne, a Republican in his second tour as school superintendent, said at a Capitol news conference Wednesday.
"These present an alternative."
Horne is giving away prime real estate on the Arizona Department of Education website to allow PragerU Kids to promote free educational materials to parents and educators.
What is PragerU Kids?
PragerU Kids isn't connected to a university.
Its namesake is Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated, right-wing talk show host.
PragerU is home to videos generated by Prager and his associates on topics such as "M.I.A. Masculinity in America," "Benjamin Harrison: One-Term Wonder," and "Your Pilot Is a DEI Hire. Good Luck!"
The nonprofit Prager University Foundation reported $65.5 million in revenue on its 2022 tax filing, the most recent available.
PragerU Chief Executive Officer Marissa Streit received $980,000 in compensation.
Streit spoke at the Capitol alongside Horne and right-wing state lawmakers in the Arizona Freedom Caucus.
"We don't support a political agenda, we support an ideological agenda," Streit said.
RELATED: PragerU materials on slavery and social justice, approved for Florida schools, spark backlash
Horne's views align with PragerU
Horne's embrace of right-wing culture wars aligns with PragerU's content.
After two weeks in office last year, Horne canceled presentations on social-emotional learning at a conference sponsored by his department.
He also scrubbed resources for LGBTQ students from the education department's website.
And he launched a so-called "anti-woke" hotline for parents to report "inappropriate" lessons.
The hotline has been a bust; an $80,000-a-year investigator job is vacant.
'Bureaucrats don't give a rat's ass'
When asked whether he had vetted the PragerU Kids videos, Horne said he didn't have to.
Streit, PragerU's CEO, jumped in:
"Can I suggest that the parents be allowed to actually vet things in the community? Instead of bureaucrats that don't give a rat's ass about our children? How about we allow that?"
Over the last year, PragerU Kids has expanded its footprint into Florida and Oklahoma.
Streit said PragerU Kids' material was "wholesome, it's patriotic, it's truthful."
'Very little to do with what went on'
But historians contend PragerU's videos whitewash the truth, in particular about slavery and the Civil War.
"In many cases, we see what's going on in these videos has very little to do with what went on historically," said Brooks Simpson, an Arizona State University professor who specializes in the era encompassing the Civil War and reconstruction.
Critics have singled out several videos in the "Leo & Layla's History Adventures" series for children:
A video titled "Frederick Douglass: The Outspoken Abolitionist" contrasts "angry," present-day protesters for social justice with a depiction of Douglass that doesn't match reality, Simpson said.
"The video was used to portray Douglass as an establishment figure who worked within the system," Simpson said. "He was an agitator. And he would resent the idea that he was always for working within the system. It was always about pressuring the system to do the right thing."
'What Columbus was likely to say'
In "Leo & Layla Meet Christopher Columbus," the Columbus character tells the children: "Being taken as slave is better than killed, no? I don't see the problem."
Streit told reporters that's what Columbus "was likely to say."
According to Simpson, "You can see in the Christopher Columbus video, that the argument is made that Columbus actually was a civilizing influence on the new world, and that criticisms of him are greatly exaggerated."
"When you open that door, you make other things acceptable, including the enslavement of African Americans," she told 12News.
Listening to critics?
Simpson believes PragerU has been paying attention to critics.
"A video that through the fall of last year had you listen to Ulysses S. Grant saying that he and Robert E. Lee could have switched sides very easily during the American Civil War," Simpson said. "Anyone who knows Grant knows that would not be the case at all.
"There was pressure about that. And in fact, the video that currently plays no longer says that. And finally, it has come to admit that the Confederacy was wrong."
Are schools required to use materials?
Horne's decision to promote PragerU Kids doesn't require Arizona schools to use the materials.
Arizona has local control in education. according to a former state official well-versed in the topic.
The State Board of Education sets state standards in subject areas. School districts put together a curriculum to meet those standards.
Some school boards might mandate the use of PragerU's materials.
Carine Werner, a member of the Scottsdale Unified Governing Board, spoke in favor of the PragerU offerings at the Capitol news conference.
Individual teachers could decide on their own to use the materials to supplement classroom instruction.
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