Conservative Public School Teacher Calls Florida Exam 'Soviet-Style Propaganda'

There are many conservative teachers sounding the alarm about the hijacking of their profession and the radicalization of school curriculums by left-wing union leaders. Exhibit A: Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis saying they’re not teachers but “education workers.”

Dean Kalahar is a Sarasota, Florida high school economics teacher. On his blog, he says his guiding principles include private property rights, free market entrepreneurial capitalism and the U.S. Constitution.

Kalahar recently brought attention to the new Florida high school senior exit exam, which he says will “indoctrinate children into a progressive and revisionist model critical of America.”

See the exit exam questions for yourself on the state Department of Education website.

Kalahar wrote:

“The new Florida exit exam standards are a shocking move toward what one can only equate to soviet style propaganda to create a monolithic citizenry. In the case of high school American history, a look into the specifics of the exit exam is all that is needed as proof to an agenda directed in a planned process by groups that have no problem using whatever means necessary to acquire power and promote a twisted vision of America. Florida exit exams in the social sciences need to be stopped immediately and there needs to be a serious reconsideration of the entire process before moving ahead.”

Among the questions Kalahar exposes are:

• Analyze the major factors that drove United States imperialism.
• Examine the controversy surrounding the proliferation of nuclear technology in the United States.
• Assess key figures and organizations in shaping the Black Power Movement.
• Analyze significant Supreme Court decisions relating to reproductive rights.
• Describe efforts by the United States and other world powers to avoid future wars.
• Examine the failure of the United States to support the League of Nations.

Kalahar says teachers will be legally bound to teach these perspectives.

It’s going to take teachers like Kalahar to reverse America’s slouch towards progressivism. We need people like him to raise awareness of the radical union agenda, so we can check the influence of radical labor leaders and other leftists and refocus our schools on student learning and achievement.