Taxpayer-funded Arizona charter schools teach a biblical nationalist version of American history

Evidence

Skousen was one of the founders of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a conservative Mormon group that holds seminars across the country and promotes “a bizarre version of American history,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Skousen was much-admired by the catastrophist Glenn Beck, who aggressively promoted Skousen’s ideas on his TV show and wrote a foreword to one of his books. Skousen’s teachings are also disseminated through a network of Arizona-based, taxpayer-funded charter schools, Heritage Academy, whose curriculum is suffused with ideological “principles,” such as the notion that “free market and minimal government best supports prosperity.” Textbooks in Heritage Academy’s mandatory American government class have included the claim that the U.S. Constitution is based on “biblical principles” and asserted that “God” destroyed a French fleet that threatened the American colonies. The Heritage Academy network, along with state officials, has been sued over alleged misuse of public money. And yet the network remains a favorite within Arizona’s “school choice” movement. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 99

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State-compelled national history teaching risks becoming ideological indoctrination rather than self-knowledge. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 342; American school curricula systematically erased imperialist, genocidal, and capitalist dimensions of national history — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 352; Christian schools propagated a mythic militant patriotism through curriculum and pageantry — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 100 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian schools propagated a mythic militant patriotism through curriculum and pageantry #corroborates (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 100
• A 2002 Arizona killer of a Sikh man shouted ‘I am an American’ #exemplifies (0.80)
• American school curricula systematically erased imperialist, genocidal, and capitalist dimensions of national history #contradicts (0.75) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 352
• State-compelled national history teaching risks becoming ideological indoctrination rather than self-knowledge. #exemplifies (0.72) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 342