An Oregon State Senator claims that the Oregon Education Department is now promoting indoctrination sessions for teachers and administrators. In an email newsletter, the Department recommended that education professionals take the “Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course” which promotes the idea that correct and incorrect answers in math are “characteristics of white supremacy.”

Senator Dennis Linthicum (R-Klamath Falls) released the following statement to demand answers from the Education Department: “Thousands of Oregon families are suffering from school shutdowns imposed by the Governor. Parents and students have rightfully demanded that schools be reopened, but with propaganda like this being taught to our teachers, parents should feel betrayed. If parents truly want their kids to learn basic skills to be successful in life, I doubt they will consider putting their kids back into the Oregon public school system.”

The training suggests that white supremacy shows up in the culture when mathematics is “used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views,” and also teaches that an oppressive hierarchy is upheld, when “teachers are teachers and students are learners,” and “students are required to show their work.”

“This curriculum is divisive and destroys the very goal of our education system, which is to teach kids objective truths about our world. The ideas in this curriculum degrade the very people it purports to help. This is nothing but the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’ for our students. All children are capable of learning math, or other subjects, without our state creating a curriculum that says, “there is no wrong answer.” Of course, there are wrong answers.

“By its own admission, this curriculum is a full-frontal assault on truth and the fact that 2+2=4. I can’t think of a better example of the post-truth progressive ideology than this. Correct math answers are not correct because of the color of one’s hair, eyes, or skin-tone, nor because a child comes from a single-parent home or has a disability. The correct calculation for the square root of 10 is an objective fact and all of us have the potential to follow the logic and come to a correct calculation. In life, as well as in mathematics, there are correct and incorrect answers.

“America’s great experiment in public schooling used to be about enabling children to develop their fullest potential by cultivating their minds, instilling values, and defending foundational principles. Now it is turning into a shameful scam. Our once great institutions are no longer serving parents and their children but are being hollowed out by radical ideologies and power-hungry public sector unions.

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

“When parents can’t trust schools to do their only job – educate – we, as policymakers, have an obligation to give people alternatives. I have introduced several measures this session that will increase the options for parents desperate to escape the indoctrination centers that our public schools have become.”

Senator Linthicum’s school reform measures include:
SB 657 increases the percentage of kids who can enroll in virtual charter schools from 3% to 5%.
SB 658 would establish an education savings account program to give low-income families the ability to choose a private school without tax penalties.
SB 659 allows any child in the state to attend any school in the state without the approval of the school board.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-02-16 17:41:11

Last Update: 2021-02-16 19:34:52