Tom Tancredo explains nature of ‘censorship’ protests over AP History.
The progressives’ planned subversion of the American history curriculum in our nation’s schools through the College Board’s new Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) exam has hit a speed bump in a suburban Denver school district.
The elected Jefferson County, Colorado, School Board, which has a new three-to-two conservative majority, is considering a proposal to set up a curriculum committee to review the APUSH curriculum for accuracy and completeness. Unfortunately, that proposal was first considered (and tabled) at the same board meeting where a new merit-based teacher salary plan was adopted.
The teachers’ union saw an opening and flew a 747 through it: They immediately began describing the issue to their students as one issue, not two – as teachers-versus-board. The students were provoked into protesting the curriculum committee proposal as “censorship,” with a support for teacher’s salary increases as logical corollary.
This manipulation of natural student idealism and love for their teachers has to be a new low point in teacher union politics. The teachers’ union wants to cower the board by teaching the new board majority a lesson. The message is: Students are our soldiers; leave our salaries and our prerogatives alone, or you will have nothing but distraction and discord for the next year!