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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFlorida\u2019s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces videos that distort science, history, gender, and other topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education experts call the videos dangerous propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida is the first state to allow PragerU materials in public schools, where teachers will have the option of showing the five- to 10-minute videos in their classrooms. Florida public schools have roughly 3 million students, more than the entire population of Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PragerU CEO Marissa Streit says the videos will rebalance schools that have been \u201chijacked by the left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYoung kids are being taught climate hysteria,” Streit said in an interview. “They\u2019re hearing that the world is coming to an end, and we think that there needs to be a healthy balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe climate is always changing,\u201d Streit added, repeating a climate-denial motto that rejects fossil fuel burning as the cause of continuing record-high temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, Florida has approved using PragerU videos only in civics and government for younger children. Some PragerU climate denial videos are classified under non-climate categories, which could enable their use in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But education advocates fear that the nation\u2019s third-largest state has granted a stamp of approval that will spread the videos to classrooms in other states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida\u2019s approval is alarming because children will watch the videos when they are at their most impressionable stage, in kindergarten through 5th grade, said Adrienne McCarthy, a researcher at Kansas State University who tracks PragerU. Extreme ideas are presented as common beliefs in many videos, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey can take these right-wing, controversial ideas and cloak them in seemingly harmless and friendly rhetoric,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThen they create this kind of facade of normal conservative beliefs, and they use authoritative figures [in the videos] in order to convince the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also targeted at the parents themselves, saying that if you want to be a good parent, you should be teaching your kids this,\u201d McCarthy added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, said Florida is effectively supporting parents and teachers who want to tear down accurate climate science lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida\u2019s approval \u201cmay be telling climate change-denier teachers about the availability of these materials,\u201d Branch said. Teachers who want to teach climate change accurately could feel coerced to do otherwise \u201cby hinting that there are resources out there with the opposite view, and people are going to be pressuring you into using them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
INDUSTRY TALKING POINTS, VERBATIM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said in a statement that the PragerU material \u201caligns to Florida\u2019s revised civics and government standards\u201d and \u201cis no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU\u2019s videos use talking points from fossil fuel companies to frame climate science and policy<\/a>. Many of the videos attack renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An eight-minute video, \u201cPoland: Ania\u2019s Energy Crisis,\u201d exemplifies how PragerU introduces climate denialism to children by subtly attacking established science and the people concerned about global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the video, teenager Ania is concerned about climate change because of what she learned at school. The fossil fuel industry\u2019s climate-denial talking points are introduced almost verbatim in the trusted voice of Ania\u2019s mother and father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ania\u2019s parents tell her that the climate has always cooled and warmed \u2014 \u201clong before carbon emissions were a factor\u201d \u2014 and that climate action is pointless until China and India cut their emissions. Ania also hears that renewable energy is unreliable and too expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ania repeats her parent\u2019s claims in class and is shunned by her teacher and classmates. Her sadness lifts, however, when her grandfather tells her about life under Nazism in World War II. Ania feels empowered because her grandfather says \u201cfighting oppression always takes courage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A PragerU video about a child in Africa features a narrator calmly attacking solar and wind because \u201ctheir batteries break down and become hazardous waste\u201d and because it’s risky \u201cto rely on things like wind and sunlight, which are not constant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Streit, the PragerU CEO, said she wants to ensure schools frame climate science as a debate. A goal of her organization is to reach children when they are at their most impressionable. That\u2019s why Florida approved the PragerU Kids channel content, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe science is actually contrary to what most educational institutions that have been really controlled by one ideology are saying,\u201d Streit said, rejecting decades of peer-reviewed research by some of the world\u2019s top science agencies showing that humanity is warming the planet at a dangerous rate. \u201cThere is debate about the severity of the changing of the climate as well as the pragmatic solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU\u2019s goal is to develop a \u201cturnkey curriculum\u201d that can be expanded to as many states as possible, Streit said. She expects to announce soon that more states have approved PragerU content and will use it for classrooms in all grades. PragerU is developing a curriculum module that could be used for course credit in high school, Streit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DESANTIS LEADS THE WAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU\u2019s foray into approved classroom use comes as conservative states and politicians aggressively seek to dismantle curriculum in African-American history and LGBTQ+ issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leader has been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president. DeSantis recently faced loud, bipartisan condemnation after education officials in his government released new curriculum standards that say enslaved people gained \u201cpersonal benefits\u201d from a lifetime of forced labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Less documented are the conservative efforts to tear down climate science and to promote in classrooms the use of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida is just the latest state to open the door to climate disinformation. Texas changed its science curriculum to require that schools teach positive lessons about fossil fuels. It\u2019s an effort to downplay accurate climate science and to influence the national textbook market, since Texas is one of the biggest consumers of educational materials in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Climate scientists long ago determined that fossil fuel use is driving rapid global warming and pushing the planet toward dangerous tipping points. Most states center their climate change curriculum around that consensus. Only a small number of researchers with legitimate academic credentials doubt the consensus science, and PragerU videos feature many of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU\u2019s website contains thousands of videos, which have a variety of classification tags to help users find its videos on topics such as civics, financial literacy or government. Climate denial videos, including some pushing conspiracy theories like the \u201cGreat Reset,” are classified with tags other than climate change, such as \u201cgovernment,\u201d \u201cglobal issues,\u201d \u201clife lessons\u201d and \u201cfreedom,\u201d which lets them qualify for approved use outside of science classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU also has materials that avoid partisan slants, including videos explaining the Electoral College and the offices of the president and vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Florida, DeSantis has long assailed what he says is liberal \u201cindoctrination\u201d in education. PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host, has proclaimed that his PragerU materials are specifically designed for \u201cour indoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s true we bring doctrines to children,\u201dPrager told the conservative group Moms for Liberty at a conference in Philadelphia in July. \u201cBut what is bad about our indoctrination?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU has produced anti-climate policy videos since shortly after it began in 2009. The Prager foundation has received millions of dollars from the billionaire brothers, Farris and Dan Wilks of Texas, who made their fortune in fracking. Wilks funding also was essential to the growth of The Daily Wire, a popular website and media company that routinely pushes climate disinformation. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU has received additional funding from foundations that oppose climate regulations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU\u2019s video library goes far beyond climate change and introduces viewers to a worldview framed around the belief system of the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PragerU CEO Streit said her group has tapped into angry parents who want their politics reflected more in classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of us, as parents, don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re being heard,\u201d Streit said. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re being gaslit, so we\u2019re hoping that this product will better explain to everyone what we want to see in our children\u2019s schools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. 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