Florida is the first state to officially approve teaching materials made by the conservative nonprofit

By Natasha Holt | July 29, 2023 | The Epoch Times

After being widely mocked by the political left for years for not being a “real” university, PragerU is making its way from device screens to school classrooms.

Since its creation in 2009, PragerU has gained billions of views of its 5-minute videos that feature experts explaining topics related to history, politics, economics, and social issues. In 2022, the nonprofit’s content was viewed on social media and other platforms more than 1.8 billion times, according to CEO Marissa Streit.

The organization, co-founded by radio talk-show host and author Dennis Prager, has since started producing “edutainment” materials to teach children about those issues in an entertaining way.

And now, the Florida Department of Education recently recognized PragerU as an approved education vendor.

That means the organization’s lesson plans and videos made for children will be available for teachers to use in their classrooms starting this fall.

But that announcement has prompted outrage from the president of the state’s largest teachers’ union, who questioned the suitability of PragerU’s content. He said the approval was part of “an agenda” by Gov. Ron DeSantis to “whitewash history.”

That’s not the mission, at all, Ms. Streit told The Epoch Times. And Mr. DeSantis was not directly involved in the approval process, she said.

Providing PragerU’s view of these topics simply restores choice to teachers and parents, she said.

“Have the teachers’ unions and those who have held our kids hostage to their ideology ever given us choice?” she asked.

“The answer is no! They have gaslit us as parents. They put us on the FBI watchlist for wanting to show up at school boards. They have sneaked in content without our permission. I would submit they have taken away our choice,” she said.

Spreading the Vision

Now, other states are preparing to follow Florida’s lead.

Ten others, including Texas, are working to add PragerU as an approved vendor for school curriculum, Ms. Streit said.

The organization is on a mission to provide parents and teachers with resources that can serve as an alternative to school curricula they feel is inappropriate, Ms. Streit said.

Over the past few years, parents across the nation have become more involved in their children’s education.

And many more have expressed a need to her organization for alternatives to current curriculum choices, Ms. Streit said. PragerU began hearing pleas from parents about the need for teaching materials that wouldn’t push critical race theory, gender theory, and anti-American ideas.

The System ‘Failed Our Child’

Heather Quarles, a Christian mother of four in Newberry, Florida, would be glad to see this kind of content in her children’s schools, she told The Epoch Times.

Students need to be presented with topics that have multiple viewpoints so they learn how to think critically and debate ideas, she said.

“There needs to be the opportunity for both sides to be represented, not just one side pushed on our kids.”

Providing students with a more balanced outlook on ideas would benefit everyone, but especially those with conservative viewpoints, Ms. Quarles said.

“They don’t feel like they even have a safe voice to speak up in the classroom and say something of a conservative nature because of the pushback that they will get, either from their teachers or their friends or their fellow classmates,” she said.

One of her sons learned that lesson at school in a painful way.

Some teachers and students were upset in 2022 about the passage of a parental rights law that, among other things, prohibits teachers from initiating classroom discussions about LGBT ideology with children in 3rd grade or below. The law was expanded in 2023 to prohibit those teachings through the 8th grade.

The law says teachers can’t suggest to young children that they might be born in the wrong body, requiring a change in gender. And it prohibits schools from keeping counseling with students a secret from parents.

Mr. DeSantis, now a Republican candidate for president, signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, and some teachers and students were angry.

Some people who opposed the measure said it would prevent children from even speaking about their LGBT loved ones or from asking questions about their gender or sexual orientation. As that notion spread, people misleadingly referred to the five-page law as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”

In response, some schools allowed students and teachers to coordinate walk-outs from class to protest against the legislation.

When it happened in her son’s school, her 9th-grader, in frustration, held up a sign protesting the walk-out that said, “This is gay.”

As a result he was angrily accosted by a classmate who and told him he should go home and kill himself. He was suspended, while the classmate received no discipline, Ms. Quarles said.

“We’ve lost all faith in public schools,” Ms. Quarles said. “We’ve lost faith in the entire system.”

Now she’s considering homeschooling as an option for his last two years before graduation.

‘Parents Are Making Demands’

Obtaining state approval means the PragerU curriculum will be covered by the state and there won’t be an out-of-pocket cost for teachers and schools who want to use it, Ms. Streit said.

“Parents are making demands, but they don’t have any tools to facilitate the change that they’re hoping to see,” she said. “That makes it very difficult for them.

“But if they can say, ‘We want change, and we want this kind of content implemented,’ we can provide them with better resources to make the changes that they want to have in their communities.”

She hopes parents will ask teachers and school boards to use the K-12 lesson plans covering topics such as history, science, civics, character development, and financial literacy. Video lessons are paired with worksheets, game suggestions, and organized class discussions.

There’s a patriotic magazine designed to be an alternative to left-leaning materials now available to students in schools.

They’ll also offer books on subjects such as historical figures, national parks, and the history of national holidays.

Books from other publishers, such as Scholastic, have filled school shelves for a long time because that company is an approved vendor and purchases of their materials can be reimbursed by the state, Ms. Streit said.

Those materials often present a liberal worldview, she said.

One Scholastic offering is by author Alex Gino, who has publicly identified as “genderqueer” and uses the courtesy title Mx.  The novel, “Melissa,” is about a young boy named George, who transitions to live as a transgender girl.

It has won the Stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and a Children’s Choice Book Award.

“Why should the left-wing content made by Scholastic and Alex Gino be reimbursed by the state, but not [materials offered by] PragerU?” Ms. Streit asked.

Scholastic did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.

Newly donated LGBT books are displayed in the library at Nystrom Elementary School in Richmond, Calif., on May 17, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Pro-Family and Pro-Children

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, questioned the suitability of PragerU’s content in a video he posted to social media.

Gov. Ron DeSantis “is trying to whitewash history. He is trying to change history. And he’s trying to implement resources that limit the learning of our students,” he said.

When asked for a comment, the Florida Education Association directed The Epoch Times to Mr. Spar’s video.

The National Education Association did not respond to a request for comment.

“They’re trying to paint this as if Governor DeSantis is going to force people to bring right-wing propaganda into the classroom,” Ms. Streit said.

“Our point is not to advocate for the states to force teachers or schools to use anything. We’re here to show up as a tool,” she said. “We saw Florida take a stance that was pro-family and pro-children when it came to the lockdowns. Now we’re seeing Florida take a stance of being pro-family and pro-children when it comes to the choices that we want to make in education.”

Natasha Holt studies journalism at a Florida university with plans to pursue a career in media and law. A seventh-generation Floridian, she digs into a wide range of issues in her home state, with a focus on the people, places, and ideas that make America great. When she’s not on assignment, she enjoys ranch life, training and caring for her family’s horses and competing in dressage.