Under state law, Minnesota’s social study standards are updated every ten years, going through a process of drafting, public comment, and review before being implemented in schools. The first draft of proposed updates to Minnesota’s social studies standards was released in late 2020 and immediately drew public response for its glaring omissions of key moments in U.S., Minnesota, and world history.
Subsequent drafts have shown slight improvement in standards for history — for instance, including the Holocaust, which was completely omitted from the first draft — but have continued to add benchmarks that introduce critical race theory to Minnesota’s classrooms through the addition of “Ethnic studies” requirements. In addition to these standards, earlier this year the Walz administration attempted to mandate ethnic studies in all schools, including private schools and home schools.
The Minnesota Department of Education is currently reviewing public comments on the proposed final version of the social studies standards and is drafting a Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR) which will be made available to the public. At that point, there will be an opportunity for public comment before the standards are reviewed and adopted.
At a recent event put on by the Center of the American Experiment, Dr. Wilfred McClay of Hillsdale College offered his analysis of the proposed standards, pointing out that in 2004, Minnesota’s social studies standards were held up as a national model. These proposed standards are a far cry from those implemented 18 years ago and represent a significant decline in the quality of the education offered to Minnesota’s next generation. Furthermore, since Minnesota has been held up as a model in the past, what happens in our state has ripple effects for the rest of the nation.
In a departure from previous years, the Minnesota Department of Education excluded subject matter experts in history, civics, economics, and geography from the drafting committee. Instead, the committee was made up primarily of political activists and community organizers. This change is reflected in the content of the proposed standards. Standards for each grade level contain benchmarks for “analyz[ing] the ways power and language construct the social identities of race, religion, geography, ethnicity, and gender.” In other words, students would be taught critical race theory and gender ideology from kindergarten through graduation. Benchmarks include, “Retell a story about an unfair experience that conveys a power imbalance (your own or from a story you have read). Share what we can learn from this story” for kindergartners, “Identify examples of ethnicity, equality, liberation, and systems of power” for first graders, and “Develop an analysis of racial capitalism” for ninth graders.
Students would be taught from kindergarten onward to see the world primarily through the lens of oppressed and oppressor, that civic engagement is primarily an exercise in resistance, and to base their understanding of identity primarily around race and gender.
Behind these standards lies a false ideology that distorts the idea of justice and is incompatible with the Christian worldview. Critical theory offers an inadequate explanation of what is wrong with the world and how to fix it. It replaces the Christian doctrine of original sin with the idea that people either bear the guilt of oppression or the weight of victimhood based on immutable characteristics, and replaces salvation with political resistance and liberation.
These proposed standards are not the only attempt to implement this ideology in Minnesota’s classrooms, and even in private and home schools. Katherine Kersten of the Center of the American Experiment writes,
“As the 2022 legislative session opened, Walz proposed legislation that would mandate Ethnic Studies — defined in the “liberated” sense — across all academic subject areas, including math and science, from grades K through 12. It would even mandate Ethnic Studies in private and home schools.” (Emphasis added.)
Parents, not the state, are the ones who are ultimately responsible for their children’s education. Minnesota law recognizes this and it’s important for parents to be aware of their right to choose the best educational option for their child, review the curriculum being used in their children’s classrooms, voice objections to content, and request alternative instruction.
While Minnesota’s students are falling significantly behind, families are exiting the public schools, and parents and voters are calling for school choice opportunities, the Walz administration has been focused on trampling parents’ rights in order to mandate academic “standards” that amount to little more than indoctrination.
No one is served by these proposed standards. They sacrifice valuable classroom content for false ideology, an ideology that many parents have expressed concerns over, and they demand that teachers become propagandists. Not only that, but they are part of a broader effort from the Walz administration to encroach on the rights of parents over their children’s education. Minnesota’s students and families deserve far better.
