Week in Review: Exposing What They’re Teaching

Just last month, millions of children watched Joe Biden swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. But, as Goldwater Institute Director of Education Policy and Director of the Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy Matt Beienburg writes this week at the Washington Examiner, “more and more of America’s schools are grooming their students to do just the opposite: to ignore or despise the Constitution as an obstacle to ‘justice’ and ‘progress.’”

In his Examiner op-ed, Beienburg discusses the politicized American Government curriculum in the Tucson Unified School District—where neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights are required reading. But Tucson is not alone: Leftist politics is infiltrating schools all across the country. At In Defense of Liberty this week, we share the story of how District of Columbia Public Schools are embracing Black Lives Matter at Schools Week of Action, a politically driven national activist campaign that includes a commitment to promoting a series of key principles including “dismantling patriarchal practice” and “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” 

It’s time we shine a light on what students are learning—and the Goldwater Institute is at the forefront of an effort to make K-12 education more transparent. We’re working with states to pass legislation that would require schools to fully disclose, online, the content that’s actually going into children’s learning so parents can make informed enrollment decisions.

You can read Beienburg’s full op-ed here.

Helping More Students in Need Is…a Problem?

According to opponents of educational freedom, the answer is actually yes: They’re attacking a new proposal to expand school choice on the grounds that it would help too many students. This new Goldwater Institute bill—passed in the Arizona Senate Education Committee this week—would significantly increase access to the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.

Yet disappointingly, various pundits have begun complaining that the proposed law’s provisions for serving students from low-income communities are not sufficiently restrictive and that they grant more many families the right to educational freedom than establishment bureaucrats think deserve it. However, the policy will not only identify and serve thousands of students in need, it will do so using the very same metrics accepted and in use at public schools throughout the country.

You can read more about this Arizona bill, SB 1452, here. And you can learn more about what the Goldwater Institute is doing to expand educational freedom to more students and families across America through programs likes ESAs here.

Barry Goldwater Quotes of Note

In 1952, Barry Goldwater leapt onto the national stage when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing his home state of Arizona. Over the course of his next 35 years in public service, Senator Goldwater made his mark on the nation—and the world—as a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution. His leadership reshaped the Republican Party, set a conservative agenda for the nation, and laid the groundwork for the transformative presidency of Ronald Reagan.

The Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy is proud to continue leading the charge for the founding principles that Senator Goldwater fought to defend. Naturally, at the Goldwater Institute, we’re inspired by the words of Senator Goldwater—the very name of our “In Defense of Liberty” blog is taken from perhaps his most famous quote of all. You can read some of our favorite quotes from Senator Goldwater’s seminal book Conscience of a Conservative here.