Many on the right are waking up to public schools indoctrinating children into woke ideologies.  X (formerly Twitter) accounts like Libs of TikTok have been exposing public school teachers as Marxists, intent on coaxing children into their gnostic cults.  The right has been predictably outraged and has shown up in force for school board meetings demanding change.  A few teachers have been fired, but there appears to be an endless supply of replacements in the ideological war.

Most normal Americans have started understanding that “diversity” is a common Marxist buzzword.  When a Marxist uses the word “diversity,” he does not mean the standard definition.  What Marxists mean is conformity.  Everyone must conform to what the Marxists say is true.  Marxism thinks it is building toward utopia but believes that utopia cannot be achieved unless everyone is striving toward the same goal.  There can be no dissent, not even by a single individual.  Thus, the modern Marxist operates under the logic of Herbert Marcuse’s infamous essay, “Repressive Tolerance.”  Movements from the left must be tolerated, no matter how violent, but movements from the right must be pre-censored so that even the offending thought does not enter a person’s head.  The demand for ideological conformity has dominated our state universities since the 1960s. 

The reason for the multitude of Marxists in our public schools is our ideologically captured secondary education systems.  To demonstrate this point, a brief survey was conducted of teacher colleges.  One state university from each state was selected, and their Elementary Education degree requirements were evaluated.  In every case, at least one, often more than one, explicitly woke class was either required or recommended.

The worst offender on the list was Arizona State University.  The major map on the ASU website listed no fewer than ten required or suggested courses containing the words “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” “equity,” “inclusivity,” “global citizen,” “culturally responsive,” or “social and emotional.”  All are Marxist buzzwords, with some also tying into the idea of global governance promoted by the World Economic Forum.  One course, SCN 202, “Sustainability Science Literacy for Engaged Global Citizens,” openly admits that it is “Grounded in UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”  For those who do not know, the SDGs are a Marxist attempt to achieve control of the Western world.  James Lindsay of New Discourses has done some work exposing the National Education Association’s importation of the SDGs into the American curriculum.  ASU is openly indoctrinating students to contribute to the destruction of America as we know it.

ASU is hardly the only offender.  The University of Tennessee Knoxville and Michigan State University require or suggest at least six woke courses for their elementary education majors.  MSU requires three one-credit seminars entitled “Justice and Equity.”  MSU also requires two three-credit classes entitled “Pedagogy and Politics of Justice and Equity in Education” and “Social Foundations of Justice and Equity in Education,” among other courses.  UT Knoxville suggests or requires “Sustainable Human Geographies”; “Social Justice, Education, and Service Learning”; and “Professional Studies for Special Education and Diverse Learners.”

It should be noted that red states are just as guilty as blue or purple states.  Arizona and Michigan are purple states, while Tennessee is reliably red.  Other reliably red states like Texas and Florida were also guilty.  Texas State University offers an elective called “Writing for Sustainable Change” and requires two courses called “Education and Equity in a Diverse Society” and “Language & Literacy in Diverse Communities.”  Florida State University requires “Culturally Responsive Teaching for Equitable Instruction” and “Introduction to Diversity for Teachers” for its elementary education majors.  Predictably, at least some blue states are worse.  UCLA offers a major entitled “Education and Social Transformation.”

This survey merely scratches the surface.  There are nearly 1,700 public universities in the United States, and a substantial number undoubtedly issue teaching degrees.  This survey covered fifty of them.  Furthermore, as many parents realized during lockdowns, what is said in a class may not always match the title and course descriptor.  A lecture on proper classroom discipline can easily turn into a lecture on equity, even if the course title says “Classroom Management.”  Without cameras in every classroom, there is no way to know how bad the indoctrination is.  Teacher colleges are infested with Marxists who are indoctrinating your kids, and you are paying for it in taxes and tuition fees.

School choice won’t save us.  In an ideal world, school choice is a wonderful solution.  But this is not an ideal world.  Even if school choice laws are passed in every state and territory, the problem is not the public education system.  The system is only as good as the teachers and administrators who run it.  If we successfully enact school choice laws, that will enable the rise of charter and independent schools.  The question then arises: where will the teachers come from?

If your answer to the above question is "there are tons of good teachers; the system is the problem," you are thinking like a Marxist.  Systems are not the problem.  Systems are made up of individuals.  And those individuals are being trained to be Marxists.  The teachers for the new schools will largely come from the teacher colleges that already exist and will be just as Marxist as the public-school teachers we have now.  Except now there will be no escape.  With government funding flowing in, most schools that will not take government funds will go out of business as people vote with their pocketbooks.  All but the wealthiest kids will be stuck with Marxist educators, forever.  Much like how a mom-and-pop grocery store cannot compete with Walmart because Walmart can price it out of the market, a school that refuses government money will be priced out by those who take it.  If I were a Marxist, I would be drooling over the school choice movement.

However, there is a way to force the Marxists to stop drooling.  The answer needs to go hand in hand with school choice because, again, school choice in principle is a very good thing.  Instead of just fighting for school choice, we need to incorporate defunding the public universities.  State governments spend over 100 billion dollars a year on university funding.  Every red state in the country should immediately defund any public university in the state that refuses to remove all manifestations of Marxism from its curriculum.  Universities should also fire or retire any professor who refuses to go along.

Any university with state funding needs to be held accountable.  Ron DeSantis set the example with New College in Florida by purging the board and eliminating the diversity office.  Every other state, particularly states with red legislatures and governors, should follow suit.

Marxism is, of necessity, parasitic.  Marxism cannot build its own institutions.  If nothing else, force the NGOs and billionaires to fund the public universities that refuse to submit rather than using our tax dollars to do it.

If we want to save our schools, we must stop the flow of Marxists into them.  Turning off the funding spigot is one way to do so.

Image via Pxfuel.