Education officials delay vote on PragerU course after backlash
‘I’m disappointed that that’s where we ended up.’ FRANK EDELBLUT Education commissioner, saying he thought the process was politicized
CONCORD, N.H. — A controversial proposal to grant academic credit for a free online course offered by PragerU didn’t get the approval that New Hampshire’s top education official had hoped it would on Thursday, but the matter is on track for further consideration next month.
Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut recommended that the State Board of Education allow high school students to earn credit toward graduation requirements by completing the conservative nonprofit’s financial literacy course.
But educators, school administrators, parents, Democratic lawmakers, and progressive groups opposed the idea. Their focus was less on the financial literacy content and more on PragerU — the unaccredited, conservative advocacy group that would be providing it.
“The extreme views espoused by this right-wing organization have no place in our public education system,” said Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, a Democrat who’s running for governor.
“This fight isn’t over,” added Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, “and it’s a startling reminder why we need leaders on the Board of Education and in the corner office who value public schools.”
PragerU is not an accredited school. It’s an online platform that exists as “a free alternative to the dominant leftwing ideology in culture, media, and education.” Its videos are dominated by right-wing commentary, and it has faced accusations of spreading factual errors and misrepresentations.
The platform added PragerU Kids content — including the financial literacy course — to push back against what the group describes as “woke agendas” that “are infiltrating classrooms, culture, and social media.” The full library of kid-oriented content has been criticized for the way it covers topics related to race, gender, slavery, climate change, colonialism, and more. One
video depicts abolitionist Frederick Douglass saying that slavery was part of a “compromise” that America’s founding fathers made “to achieve something great.”
Democratic state Representative David Luneau of Hopkinton told the board that “many, many people” consider PragerU to be “a racist propaganda mill.” Others said approving the financial literacy course could be seen as a tacit endorsement of other content on the platform.
Rather than approve PragerU’s application right away, the board voted unanimously Thursday to table it for another month to collect and review more details about precisely how the course would be presented.
Edelblut said his team is prepared to continue working with PragerU to make sure all of the board’s questions and concerns are addressed. He bemoaned how heated the response to his recommendation became this week.
“It got overly politicized,” he said, “and I think there was some interest in doing that. I’m disappointed that that’s where we ended up because this is good learning and good engaging material for our students.”
Edelblut, a Republican businessman whose seven children were homeschooled, has confirmed that he’s thinking about running for governor in 2024, as he did in 2016.
Florida recently sparked outrage by approving PragerU’s content for optional in-classroom use. PragerU CEO Marissa Streit said in a video in July that Florida’s decision means teachers in that state “cannot be fired for using PragerU content.” She called for supporters to help get PragerU materials into classrooms in more states as a way to counteract K-12 schools having been “hijacked by the left” and “used by union bosses.”
That’s fresh in the minds of concerned stakeholders, though the proposal under consideration in New Hampshire is more limited.
“It’s important to be clear that, if this financial literacy course is approved, it is an approval for this course only, and not for any other content produced by PragerU,” board president Drew Cline said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have an interest in blurring that line for their own purposes.”
The proposal, if approved, would make the course available through the state’s “Learn Everywhere” program. It would be optional.
Still, some concerned commenters told the board that approving this course for the Learn Everywhere program would give an inappropriate foothold to an overtly ideological organization.
Emmett Soldati, a small business owner from Somersworth who founded the Teatotaller cafe and ran for Executive Council in 2020 as a Democrat, told the board members that they should not “hide behind” the idea that this PragerU course is separate from the rest of their offerings. Approving a curriculum with videos that bear PragerU’s logo would send a clear message to kids about the group’s credibility, he said.
“We need to consider what a student is going to think when they see that this is an endorsement of this entity,” he added.
Some commenters questioned whether the financial literacy course can adequately assess whether students have mastered the material.
Mark MacLean, executive director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association, said the financial literacy videos are well produced, present good information, and could be a valuable resource in the classroom as part of a bigger curriculum.
“I just don’t think as a standalone it’s enough to provide students what they need for any sort of comprehensive financial literacy program,” he added.
MacLean said the 40-question multiple-choice assessment at the end of PragerU’s course doesn’t really do enough to assess whether students learned financial literacy concepts.
“It’s not asking kids to analyze anything. It’s not asking kids to synthesize any information. It’s not asking them to put things together, to draw a hypothesis,” he said. “They’re just regurgitating information that they watched, from the video.”
A two-member committee within the Department of Education completed the formal review of PragerU’s application in July. The department sent an email to eight educators on July 3, giving them four days to express interest in participating. That included the holiday, during summer break. None responded. One said she never got the email. Critics have said the review process lacks rigor.
Brandon Ewing, head of education and curriculum for PragerU Kids, told the board that his team is prototyping a standalone landing page that would be specifically branded for New Hampshire’s Learn Everywhere program. That could help address some of the concerns about what other PragerU content students would see when completing their financial literacy coursework.
Currently, the featured presenters on PragerU’s main site include Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, Candace Owens, and Jordan B. Peterson. Recent videos include “Why I Left the Left,” “How Multiculturalism Is Fracturing America,” and “Make Men Masculine Again.”
Before the board’s next meeting, Cline said he wants to see detailed information about what content that standalone website would include and how students would interact with it. He also said he wants the board to take an opportunity to review all of the worksheets and assessment questions that PragerU would use with this course.
If the PragerU course is approved, Cline said, he hopes to see it approved for a quartercredit, not the entire half-credit of financial literacy coursework that students now need to graduate. There just isn’t quite enough material in the PragerU course to justify a half-credit, he said.