South Carolina Schools Partner With PragerU

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South Carolina has joined a number of conservative states in partnering with nonprofit PragerU to provide supplemental educational content to students, educators and parents.

“These optional educational materials, aligned with South Carolina’s K-12 standards, will provide a wide range of essential topics like civics and financial literacy” state superintendent of education Ellen Weaver noted in announcing the partnership.

PragerU has also partnered with Florida, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Montana and Arizona to provide free educational resources tied to the respective states’ curricula.

The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE)’s main collaboration with PragerU centered on the creation of a document (.pdf) pairing specific pieces of preexisting Prager content with learning standards.

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PragerU describes itself as “a resource for all who value liberty [and] a threat to all those who do not,” something which has aggravated a some left-wing purveyors of public opinions.

Brandon Fish, who serves as director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Charleston called the move “profoundly disappointing” – adding that it “seems to directly contradict the arguments made to advance the “Transparency & Integrity in Education Act.”

“My understanding was that the SCGOP was opposed to the politicization of school curricula.”

The Transparency & Integrity in Education Act (H. 3728) referenced by Fish prohibits educators from teaching that “an individual, by virtue of the race, sex, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin of the individual, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, sex, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.”

In an interview with Weaver, PragerU CEO Marissa Streit told educators and parents they’re “not forced to use this content, but you should really check it out, because I think you’re really going to enjoy it.”

According to Streit, Prager’s “staff pored over your state standards and made sure that the content that we’ve made is helpful to teachers, so they don’t have to go and scramble on YouTube and other random places to find things that would meet their goals.”

“We are so excited about the partnership with you” Weaver said, citing the “civics resources” the program “brings to the table for our students and our teachers.”

“We have an incredible country, an incredible state, and we want our students to know that history, to be proud of that history, and to know their place in that amazing story that we call America,” Weaver said.

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Weaver and Streit’s conversation next turned to the issue of cell phones in public schools, a topic which has been quite controversial among South Carolina parents in the wake of the state’s “Free to Focus” policy – which was written into state law via a budget proviso.

This proviso (1.103) mandated that “to receive state funds allocated for State Aid to Classrooms, a school district shall implement a policy adopted by the State Board of Education that prohibits access to personal electronic communication devices by students during the school day. “

Weaver told Streit that cell phones in classrooms are “doing real damage to the mental health of our students” due to the “addictions that they are causing – the anxiety and the depression that we know that is a direct result of overuse of technology.”

“This is a real a real danger, and I think as responsible adults, we have to step up,” she said. “We are derelict in our duty if we don’t.”

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The detrimental effects of social media use on the mental health of children are well documented, but a number of parents remain concerned about being able to reach their children in the event of an emergency.

“We know that, sadly, there are emergencies that happen at our schools and our students have to be focused on the adult who is trying to get them (the student) to safety in that emergency, and not focused and distracted by their phone” Weaver said, adding “the most safe thing that their student can be doing is not looking at their device, but again, focusing on that adult that is getting them to safety. And when you explain that to parents, I think a light bulb goes on.”

While students would likely be safer listening to competent adults in a time of crisis, incidents like the Uvalde school shooting – in which incompetent police officers failed to enter the Robb Elementary school and confront the shooter for more than an hour – have led many students and parents to fear that government officials may not take appropriate lifesaving actions in the event of a future shooting.

The temporary nature of budget provisos, which must be re-written into the budget annually, means that lawmakers could easily write emergency access into a future “Free to Focus” proviso should educators report positive results from the first cell phone free school year.

Count on FITSNews to continue to report on the South Carolina education system, and to hold our educational leaders accountable to move past the Palmetto State’s long history of subpar academic outcomes.

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THE STANDARDS…

(SCDE)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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