America is a country with a “living constitution.” The Supreme Court should be “responsive to the wishes of the people.” “The Electoral College should be abolished.” 

These are all statements I heard directly from teachers – civics and government teachers, to be exact – over my 20 years in public school. 

During those two decades, I saw inside of hundreds of classrooms, read countless textbooks, and spoke with teachers daily. The phrases above barely scratch the surface of the problems with social studies.

One troubling example of this is that communism rarely receives more than a brief discussion. One would hope that since this dangerous ideology is directly responsible for mass murder on an unimaginable scale, it would necessitate in-depth analysis. However, in most high school classrooms, the history of communist Russia is glazed over at best, and at worst skipped entirely. The gory details of life in the Soviet Union just aren’t in the curriculum. This treatment produces my favorite societal refrain, “Communism works, it just hasn’t been done properly.” 

There are no other subjects taught in school that have been intellectually corrupted and contaminated like US History, Civics, and Government. Despite the exclamations that critical race theory and Marxist indoctrination are not present in our public K12 schools, there is a mountain of evidence that says otherwise. 

Reviews of instructional materials for civics and government reveal passages that explain that the Democratic party consists of primarily women and minorities while Republicans are suburb-dwelling, white men. You know, so you understand what team you’re supposed to be on. This particular textbook made the “Not Recommended” list in Florida. 

Another rejection included a national publisher of a middle school textbook that said socialism “keeps things nice and even without unnecessary waste.” 

Florida parents also found pornographic books in school libraries, on the shelf next to How to Be a (Young) Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, the now-disgraced former darling of the Woke Left and author of the infamous line, “The only remedy to past discrimination is future discrimination.” 

Kendi’s work is at the core of the CRT movement which uses curriculum like the 1619 Project to frame the entirety of American History as an endeavor in racism and oppression. Teachers all over the country are being trained to include critical race theory in their instruction. 

Fortunately, the last three years have given hundreds of thousands of parents across the country a new tool in their education toolbox: choice. In my home state of West Virginia, the Hope Scholarship can be used by parents to purchase a course or curriculum they feel best suits their child. 

Parents can evaluate the products they purchase by reading through them to ensure they are intellectually sound and academically honest. You will not receive such an offer from your local public school.  

To take but one example, if you were to use the Hope Scholarship to hire an instructor on a platform like Outschool.com you might ask the teacher questions like “Do you think the Constitution is a living document?” or “How do you feel about socialism?”  

Education savings account programs like West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship are popping up all over the country, and this is in no small way a result of school closures and the public schools’ attempt at online learning.  Parents got a clear picture of the ideologies seeping into public school classrooms. Moms, grass-roots organizations, and state legislators rightly called out the school districts and stood in the gap.

Parents put the nation on notice, but without radical change, I’m afraid it’s too late. School choice puts the power to decide back in the hands of the parent, where it belongs. 

If you too have your doubts about the academic integrity in the teaching of our American History or the quality of instruction on the structure and function of our Constitutional Republic, you should also consider the school choice banner as a cause worthy of support. Parents who recognize the gifts that our unique system of government has afforded its citizens should have the right to teach their children to appreciate and love it when the public school will not.