Reading, writing and socialism: Public education and America's youth

Analysis by FPI / November 10, 2019

A “testament” to the “failure” of American public education is evident in a recent poll which showed 70 percent of millennials said they would vote for a socialist, a columnist wrote.

In the poll by YouGov/Victims of Communism, 50 percent said they see capitalism in a negative light and only 57 percent think the Declaration of Independence “is actually a declaration of, well, independence,” Cheryl K. Chumley wrote for The Washington Times.

About a fourth of respondents in the poll say that President Donald Trump is the biggest threat to world peace, even more so than North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

“Only 57 percent of millennials believe the Declaration of Independence better ‘guarantees freedom and quality’ over [the] Communist Manifesto,” according to a report by Victims of Communism.

While there are slightly more Republicans among math and science teachers, among high school teachers overall, there are 87 Democrats for every 13 Republicans.

Dr. Greg Forster, Friedman Fellow at the school-choice organization EdChoice, wrote last year that university education schools indoctrinate future teachers in left-wing ideology.

“Peruse the course catalog of any major education school, or read the Twitter feeds of the professors,” observes Forster, and you will “find yourself swimming in an ocean of hard-left ideology: ‘critical theory’ that says there is no truth, only power; ‘intersectionality’ that says you’re not allowed to be right about anything unless you’re right (that is, Left) about everything; cheerleading for every fashionable left-leaning cause.”

Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said: “The historical amnesia about the dangers of communism and socialism is on full display in this year’s report. When we don’t educate our youngest generations about the historical truth of 100 million victims murdered at the hands of communist regimes over the past century, we shouldn’t be surprised at their willingness to embrace Marxist ideas. We need to redouble our efforts to educate America’s youth about the history of communist regimes and the dangers of socialism today.”

Chumley noted that “Redoubling efforts won’t accomplish much if America’s schools, from elementary through higher places of learning, are filled with far-leftist-slash-Marxists. Before redoubling, we should clear house. What’s needed are more Christians, more constitutionalists, more tea party types, more conservatives, more traditionalists in teaching positions at America’s schools.”

Chumley added: “What’s needed is a balancing of the current leftist dominance.”

Without that balancing, Chumley wrote, “no effort, redoubled or otherwise, will prove fruitful in teaching the truth. Socialism is a rot, an evil rot, a historically failed evil rot, and any teaching that doesn’t underscore this basic fact won’t change the pro-socialist, anti-capitalist minds of America’s youth.”

Chumley’s analysis is backed by research conducted by Verdant Labs. Using political-contribution data on the Democrat-Republican divide based on job type, researchers found that, among English teachers, there are 97 Democrats for every three Republicans, with the proportion being even more one-sided among health teachers, with 99 Democrats for every one Republican.

Forster said that university schools of education are worried about school choice breaking their teacher-training monopoly, “but maybe they should have thought about that before letting their curricula slide into an unproductive ideological Never-Never Land.”

Free Press International