A conservative-led government passes a slew of laws that target the ability of schools to teach about subjects that could create “division” or stoke anti-patriotic sentiment in a legislature dominated by one party silencing the opposition voices. This sounds like a liberal nightmare that could only happen in the most autocratic and far-right of countries. The abuse of educational systems to propound an agenda is happening right now in the United States. This performative spectacle can eerily be compared to efforts in Russia to prevent dissent and skepticism among students and teachers as horrible re-education of the youth unfolds in the face of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Beginning in 2020, Republican conservatives across America have sought to energize their base by sacrificing the independent education system to transform it into a propaganda-promoting machine. Critical race theory (CRT), a scholarly examination of the way race, society, and the law interact, has become the demon that Republicans attack most. In the Virginia governor’s race, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin repeatedly decried the teaching of CRT and anti-racist material in the state’s schools. It should be noted that no public school in the United States teaches or requires courses or content that cover or include CRT. In fact, the near-obvious racist dog-whistling of Republicans has led to nationwide attacks on education.
Not only are swaths of school districts banned from discussing racism, which is an issue which has infested and affected American history for all its existence, they can actually be penalized for seemingly conveying anti-whiteness or divisive views (such as the existence of racism in American society). These penalties include the firing of teachers (a poor idea in an education system with ever-declining employment numbers), the withholding of funds from schools and districts (yet another rock on the budgetary struggles caused by Republicans against public education), and the review of all curricula in the school (an unnecessary task, given the amount of political interference already in our schools). The unnecessary roadblocks against learning about racism and how to prevent discrimination do not end at classroom lesson censorship.
Republicans also attacked education surrounding gender and sexual orientation, aiming to cut back on any discussion of queer history, existence, or rights. Called by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” laws, Republicans in state legislatures across the country have rushed through legislation that prevents classroom discussions of gender and sexuality. These bigoted efforts follow the disturbing trend of censoring opposing viewpoints and turning schools into the next political battlefield.
Book banning, a practice which should have long been relegated to autocratic and oppressive regimes, thrives in the “liberty-loving” United States. Whether it is school boards attempting to ban books about the Holocaust or novels about racism, nothing stops the onslaught on free education. It seems almost dystopian when banned books see increased sales on online retailers or when noble citizens buy banned books to give them out for free, all in an attempt to undermine the oppressive censorship of book banning.
While oppressive regimes in countries that the United States claims to counter ideologically censor education to create a fact-washed, pro-government, anti-progress agenda that infests the noblest ideas of an educated youth, American conservatives lead a similar charge to prevent the so-called “indoctrination” of our students. The hypocrisy is so blatantly clear that one must reconsider whether education should be directed at children only and not the metaphorically blind politicians who think a classroom is a proper political battleground.
Diogenes, a 4th century Greek philosopher who contributed to the increase in global education, intellectual thought, and who could never have predicted the tyranny of intellectual censorship, summarized the foundation of every nation and country. We can only hope that the direction America is set on can be reversed before our nation is divided between the properly educated and the propaganda-fed. Diogenes was correct, more than he would ever live to see, as he said:
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth”.