Dear Friends,
As some of you are aware, I serve as one of the two Republican leads on our House E-12 Education committees along with Representative Ron Kresha. Yesterday, we crafted a letter to Governor Walz calling on him to direct the Commissioner of Education to retract the notice of intent to adopt the new social studies standards. Many other House Republicans signed onto our letter in support of the effort, which is due to the overly harmful and hateful language currently included in the standards.
As noted in the letter, the proposed social studies standards includes references to “settler colonialism” and “anti-colonialism” that shares similarities to the language used by the Democratic Socialists, including the Twin Cities DSA, in their anti-Semitic statements following the horrific, unprovoked attacks on the Israeli people.
Hate has no place in our schools, and certainly has no place in our academic standards. We cannot allow or tolerate academic standards that read as if they were written by the Democratic-Socialists of America.
It is unconscionable to even consider the possibility that our state academic standards would not only defend but condone the type of violence we have seen in recent days against the State of Israel under the guise of ‘anti-colonialism’ or ‘resistance.’
We are urging Governor Walz to request reconsideration of these controversial proposed standards before they are adopted. To read the letter, click here.
Talk to you soon,
Peggy