Conservatives now using public education to spread Right Wing propaganda and dumb down the population.

Courtesy of Salon:  

One of the biggest obstacles for the conservative movement when it comes to recruiting new members is, to be frank, reality itself. History, science, economics are all fields constantly churning out information that makes right-wing ideology look silly, nonsensical and even delusional. In response, the conservative movement has launched a massive media campaign against reality that spreads out on Fox News, talk radio and the web, but despite all this, conservatives are not satisfied. The kids are who conservatives really want. That’s why the right is relentless about its attempts to get into public schools, throw out actual information and replace it with false and misleading ideology. Whether or not they’ll actually be successful in tricking kids into becoming conservatives is up for debate, but in the meantime, they are doing a lot of damage to childrens’ ability to get a decent education. 

The latest battle in the ongoing war to turn public schools into propaganda machines for the right is being fought in the state of Texas. The state is often at the center of conservative-fomented education controversies, as right-wingers there keep trying to sneak creationism into the science classroom. Texas also continues to maintain its abysmally high teen pregnancy rate by pushing sex “education” that usually doesn’t bother to mention contraception. While the right has been losing some ground on those two issues, a new report from the Texas Freedom Network suggests that conservatives have been able to inject a shocking number of lies and disinformation into public school history classrooms.

The article goes on to remind us that the textbooks adopted by Texas are often the only ones publishers bother to print, and therefore become the textbooks used by public schools all over the country.

So how bad are these books really?

Well here are some of the troubling findings documented by ten scholars studying textbooks proposed for public school classrooms in Texas as reported to the Washington Post: 

A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding and Western political tradition. 

Two government textbooks include misleading information that undermines the Constitutional concept of the separation of church and state. 

Several world history and world geography textbooks include biased statements that inappropriately portray Islam and Muslims negatively. 

All of the world geography textbooks inaccurately downplay the role that conquest played in the spread of Christianity. 

Several world geography and history textbooks suffer from an incomplete – and often inaccurate – account of religions other than Christianity. 

Coverage of key Christian concepts and historical events are lacking in a few textbooks, often due to the assumption that all students are Christians and already familiar with Christian events and doctrine. 

A few government and U.S. history textbooks suffer from an uncritical celebration of the free enterprise system, both by ignoring legitimate problems that exist in capitalism and failing to include coverage of government’s role in the U.S. economic system. 

One government textbook flirts with contemporary Tea Party ideology, particularly regarding the inclusion of anti-taxation and anti-regulation arguments. 

One world history textbook includes outdated – and possibly offensive – anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilization. 

A number of U.S. history textbooks evidence a general lack of attention to Native American peoples and culture and occasionally include biased or misleading information. 

One government textbook … includes a biased – verging on offensive – treatment of affirmative action. 

Most U.S. history textbooks do a poor job of covering the history of LGBT citizens in discussions of efforts to achieve civil rights in this country. 

Elements of the Texas curriculum standards give undue legitimacy to neo-Confederate arguments about “states’ rights” and the legacy of slavery in the South. While most publishers avoid problems with these issues, passages in a few U.S. history and government textbooks give a nod to these misleading arguments.

The conservatives have been attacking public education for decades now, often attempting to undermine them by pushing for charter schools, or  encouraging parents to home school their children.

Now it seems that they are attacking education at its source.

Let's face it the conservatives and the religious right do not care one bit about truth, facts, or accuracy. All they care about is continuing to promote their agenda and maintaining a level of ignorance that allows them to continue to perpetuate their bullshit.

Remember facts have a liberal agenda.