The Koch money machine is now extending its reach into public education as its goal is to indoctrinate school-aged children with conservative-slanted educations, reported Talking Points Memo.
In 2011, the North Carolina state legislature passed a law the requires public schools to insert a history course America’s “founding principles” into their curriculums. The bill was written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative “bill mill” that authors cookie cutter bills that favor corporations and right-wing causes.
After the bill was passed, the state hired the Bill of Rights Institute to research and create a history curriculum. The Bill of Rights Institute is funded by David and Charles Koch. Although the curriculum’s message isn’t “overtly political or conservative,” it does focus on “American exceptionalism,” has a libertarian bias, promotes limited government, and puts a more positive spin on early American history.
One major emphasis of the lesson plan is asserting that the Bill of Rights was written to limit the government’s power. According to the state’s curriculum document, “Rule of Law is important because it limits the government and the people under the same set of laws so that they cannot infringe upon rights.”
The curriculum also asserts that the founding fathers were not racist, and even justifies their efforts to maintain slavery. “Slavery was an important economic and social institution in the United States,” according to an essay in the curriculum. “The Founders understood that they would have to tolerate slavery as part of a political compromise. They did not see a way to take further action against slavery in their lifetimes, though many freed their slaves after their deaths.”
Another aspect questions the government’s power and even grazes the Affordable Care Act as an act of government overreach of power.
“The Affordable Care Act: The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government did not have the power to force Americans to buy health insurance under the Commerce Clause, but that they did have the power to tax.”
Conservative corporate networks, namely those operated by the Kochs, plant millions of dollar into conservative causes in attempt to control our government. They now want to have some control in the American education system as well. Education is supposed allow students to open their minds and consider all points of view. The Koch version molds their minds into seeing only one side.
