Texas Taliban Mandates Bible and Bill Bennett in Schools

Texas has a long history of repeated attempts to turn the public school curriculum into an indoctrination tool in support of Christofascist values promoted by the John Birch Society of the late 1950s—which had such profound influence on Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and the MAGAts that are now seeking to replace our constitutional republic with a fascist theocracy. 

The recent approval of a mandated book list for all K-12 Texas public school children is the latest, most brazen, and stupidest version of those many attempts to mold the next generation toward acceptance of the intellectual, ethical, religious, and social values of the late Jim Crow Era.

The religious indoctrination effort is underpinned by an unprecedented requirement for specified Protestant bible readings and/or bible lessons through elementary and high school.

The ethical training component comes in the form of required reading of neocon hypocrite, racist, and admitted habitual gambler, Bill Bennett, whose Book of Virtues and Children’s Book of Virtues serve as texts. (For some background on Bennett, see "The Bookie of Virtue" by Joshua Green writing for the Washington Monthly.)

Almost ten percent of all U.S. public school children attend Texas public schools.  Therefore, textbook companies are quick to yield to the monetary incentive to offer texts nationally that will sell in Texas as well. So if you think the retro pablum in the Texas required list of books will be limited to Texas, think again. 

By the way, the only significant differences between the new Texas requirements and what I was expected to read in school (1955-1967): we did not have a right-wing gambling addict teaching us ethical know-how, we didn’t have to read the bible (Protestant or otherwise), and we DID get to read Romeo and Juliet in 11th grade.  

A Great Primer on K-12 Indoctrination

A big thank you to Anne Lutz Fernandez, who provides the following primer on the anti-education propagandists who are set upon warping the minds of children who they hope will grow up to be uneducated MAGA stooges.  

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An ambitious project began with a moral panic, stoked early in the pandemic, about the nation’s schoolchildren. A “woke” army of radical leftist teachers was allegedly indoctrinating America’s youth.

The well-funded astroturf push demonized educators and created hysteria about Critical Race Theory before expanding to other bogeymen. It has been shockingly successful at producing educator intimidation, book bans, and K-12 censorship.

Though ongoing, the panic can now be filed under the label, Every Accusation is a Confession — because the project’s next phase is underway, instituting far-right indoctrination in schools.

It’s a conspiracy!

Calling critical race theorists conspiracists, MAGA insisted that, despite educators’ denials, CRT was secretly being taught in K-12. In an explainer, Heritage instructed parents how to find the CRT snuck into kids’ backpacks.

Now, red states are weaving MAGA conspiracies into Social Studies curriculum. In May, Oklahoma approved standards requiring teaching the conspiracy, led by Donald Trump, that the 2020 election was stolen and treating the Covid lab leak theory as fact. Florida’s new curriculum has students (in grades, 6, 7, 8, and 9-12!) learning “The History of Communism” in ways that PEN America describes as “a dangerous recasting of McCarthyism as patriotism and dissent as ‘un-American.’”

It’s indoctrination!

A Trump executive order in January summarized MAGA messaging on K-12 over these past few years:

parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies… Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.

The EO calls for schools to “instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation” and goes on to clarify that the education they seek depicts the U.S. and its history in entirely glowing terms:

Now they’ve built an echo chamber to make this happen: the America 250 Civics Coalition, led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon. From American First Policy Institute to Hillsdale College to Heritage, Turning PointUSA, Moms4Liberty, and more, the initiative’s 40 partners are a diverse set of organizations from the far-right to farther-right to cheek-against-the-wall. They’re collaborating on propaganda for K-12 packaged as civics.

It’s extreme!

The right has been using the term “gender ideology” to smear as extremist inclusive policies and teaching about women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. This has involved flinging bizarre fictions about cat litter in classrooms and teachers performing transgender operations. A recurring theme: schools aligning themselves with extreme ideologies and working to turn children’s loyalty. Trump 2.0 has been pulling funds for programs they paint with this or the “DEI” brush.

Now America 250 is tapping ideologues such as pro-authoritarian Dennis Prager. His fake university’s videos include counter-factual material on slavery, gender, climate, and more, sometimes presented by high-profile extremists. In these videos, which various states have been adopted, “Extreme ideas are presented as common beliefs.” Dennis Prager makes no bones about his agenda, admitting, “‘We bring doctrines to children. That is a very fair statement. I said, “But what is the bad of our indoctrination?”’”

. . . . red states are lining up to pledge allegiance to the Heritage Foundation’s education “vision.” Gov. Ron DeSantis got there first, signing the think tank’s Phoenix Declaration, a document carefully worded to appear not as out of the mainstream as its authors — or as its prime source, Project 2025. Yet the call for schools to “cultivate gratitude for and attachment to our country and all who serve its central institutions” is just one hint that to sign is to pledge allegiance to the MAGA pols in control of many of those institutions. . . .

Read the rest here.