PROF. GIORDANO: American education's decline under Governor Tim Walz
For the first time in 40 years, Minnesota now ranks below the national average in student proficiency. August 28, 2024 1/2
As Governor Walz and Minnesota education officials are focused on inculcating students with far-left socialist/Marxist propaganda, the core mission of education has been neglectedwhich has led to a decline in student performance. For thefirst time in 40 years, Minnesota now ranks below the national average in student proficiency.
Under Governor Walz’s leadership, since he first assumed office in 2019, Minnesota went from being ranked among the top ten in education to 19th place.
Student proficiency levels have consistently dropped, more than half ofMinnesota students fail to meet math and reading standards, and 19 school districts could not produce a single student proficient in math. Only 15% of Minnesota’s 8th-grade students were proficient in U.S. History, and 23% in Civics. These numbers are abysmal.
Unfortunately, many of our leaders refuse to acknowledge how our education system has been hijacked by radical ideologues. However, Minnesota serves as a stark example of what happens when dangerous ideologies are substituted for genuine education.Governor Walz’s support for a radical K-12 ethnic studies curriculum is not just a state issue.
It should serve as a warning to the entire nation that the focus is no longer to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. Instead, =it shapes the student body into activists==, and it leaves students ill-equipped to defend our country or the core American principles that have defined America for the last 248 years, including self-government, liberty, and freedom.
Since 2021, Walz’s Department of Education has been collaborating with the Education for Liberation Network (EdLib) to redesign its curricula and pushback on what EdLib deems “the status quo of colonial education.” This new curriculum, infused with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) dogma, updates standards to encourage students to view America through the lens of systemic oppression and perpetual victimhood based on categories like “identity” and “resistance.”
EdLib believes that education should be placed in the context “the struggle for social justice and connect it to action that leads to social change.” In their Abolitionist Toolkitfor Educators, topics include revolution, resistance, dismantling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), defunding the police, reparations, “adultism,” and “woke wonderings”.
Rather than indoctrinate students with anti-American beliefs, Minnesota’s students, as well as all American students, would be better served by a curriculum that instills a deep understanding of the principles that have made our nation strong. Students should be taught the totality of our history, including all the complexities of our young nation. They should be taught to formulate arguments based on truths and not feelings, and they should be taught to think critically.
Civic education requires students to be Constitutionally literate as this knowledge helps them understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens, the structure of the government, and the principles that guide our nation. The founding fathers, who were ordinary men that became statesmen, crafted the Constitution to ensure a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which is something every student should appreciate and understand…
https://www.campusreform.org/article/nebraska-mayor-rejects-chadron-states-tim-walz-day-says-city-needs-stay-politics/26349