Today in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which despite its 6-3 Republican makeup is chaired by the pampered and entitled Democrat Cleo Fields, there’s an “executive session” going on this morning.
Meaning that the public isn’t being allowed to witness what’s happening in that committee room.
Why would this be?
Well, we’re told that this is the problem…
Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s education superintendent under whose tenure Louisiana has advanced as many as eight spots in educational outcomes, happens to be politically conservative. He also happens to be a fairly resourceful executive who looks for assets where he can find them.
Prager U is a great educational asset. Prager U’s video content items are among the most digestible Cliff’s Notes versions of explainers for historical events, civics concepts and other things that would fall under the ambit of “social studies.” So Brumley took advantage of that asset and his office is allowing the use of Prager U videos in Louisiana’s classrooms.
The Left has lost their minds over this. For example, the left-wing nonprofit-funded Baton Rouge Advocate acted as though Brumley was starting Hitler Youth chapters across the state with Brumley’s announcement…
On Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, called on Louisiana to cancel the partnership. PragerU has published videos critical of the Muslim faith, including “Where Are the Moderate Muslims?” and “Born to Hate Jews.”
CAIR, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said that PragerU’s materials could “create a dangerous and disruptive environment” for Black and Muslim students.
“PragerU, which has a history of spreading ahistorical propaganda and Islamophobia, is not a reputable source of information about anything and has no place in public school curriculums,” CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said in a statement.
The Louisiana Department of Education and PragerU did not immediately respond to requests for comment on CAIR’s statement.
In his announcement Tuesday, Brumley said that PragerU’s videos align with the state’s new social studies standards, which he calls the “Freedom Framework.”
“Louisiana was the first state to adopt new, rigorous social studies standards that teach students about American exceptionalism and our quest for a more perfect union,” he said in a statement released by PragerU. “This partnership will provide teachers with additional resources to help bring our Freedom Framework to life.”
Founded in 2009 by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, the nonprofit produces slick online videos that the group says have been viewed billions of times and are hosted by conservative media figures, including Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. Geared for young adults, its videos frequently attack liberal causes, including gender-affirming care for transgender youth, climate change, the Democratic party and teachers unions.
More recently, the group launched PragerU Kids with animated videos, books and other content covering American history, civics, financial literacy, the Bible and other topics. In 2023, Florida became the first state to approve PragerU Kids content for use in classrooms, followed by Oklahoma, Montana, New Hampshire and Arizona.
“PragerU Kids is serving families, schools, and young Americans through edu-taining, pro-American content and undoing the damage of leftist teachers unions,” the group, which spends millions of dollars advertising its content, said in its 2023 annual report.
The report adds that the nonprofit is dedicated to “Biblical values, protecting children’s innocence, celebrating America’s exceptional history, civic responsibility, rejecting woke culture, and defending free speech.”
Omigosh! CAIR, the propaganda outfit affiliated with Hamas, doesn’t like Prager U. The horror!
The word was this “executive session” in Fields’ committee was going to be a struggle session for Brumley over the Prager U partnership. And it’s taking place in Senate Governmental Affairs rather than Senate Education because Brumley is up for confirmation for another term as education superintendent.
Again, there are six Republicans and three Democrats on that committee. The votes are there to defeat whatever it is that Fields is contemplating putting Brumley through.
But the real question is something we discussed here yesterday – why is Cleo Fields, one of only 11 Democrats in a 39-member state Senate, in a position to put Cade Brumley through any sort of inquisition?
He should never have been given that committee chairmanship, and the chaos he’s making out of that committee – which reached a zenith on Tuesday when he announced that the bill creating a constitutional convention, Gov. Jeff Landry’s top priority item in this legislative session, would not move – makes it very plain what a mistake it was to give this man power the voters specifically opted to deny to him and his Democrat colleagues.
Republicans should chair committees in a Republican-dominated legislature. Democrats should have no power to stop anything.
And they certainly shouldn’t have a platform to grandstand and virtue-signal in advance of a congressional campaign as Fields has.
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