education

Voucher Schools Are Teaching Some Truly Insane Things

Betsy DeVos. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

In her time as Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos has already managed to enact some disastrous changes, like rolling back Title IX guidance on campus sexual assault. And some of her most concerning viewpoints have always been in regards to charter schools and vouchers — she vehemently supports both — the latter of which HuffPost has taken a deep dive into.

The voucher program consists of public funding that goes to parents to send their children to private schools of their choice, which are often religious. In a specific look at the curricula promoted at Evangelical Christian voucher schools — again, paid for by your tax dollars — HuffPost looked at textbooks from companies Abeka, Bob Jones, and Accelerated Christian Education. Spoiler: they’re not great.

Here’s an Abeka textbook on how Satan invented evolution and psychology, among other things (busy guy!):

Satan did not want people worshipping God, so in the late 1800s, Satan hatched “the ideas of evolution, socialism, Marxist-socialism (Communism), progressive education, and modern psychology” to counter America’s increased religiosity. 

An ACE textbook on women’s suffrage:

What the ACE textbook says: After women gained the right to vote in the 1920s and started working more outside the home, they also started behaving in increasingly anti-Christian ways. Women moved from being “obedient to their own husbands as Titus 2:5 instructs” to having the audacity to start cutting their hair and wearing short skirts.

And an ACE textbook on the Civil War:

There were many causes for the “war between the states,” or the Civil War, according to ACE. Slavery is a “likely causal” factor, but not the only one. States’ rights and protective tariffs also played a big role. God may have also been punishing people with the war, as it was preceded by a time of “religious apostasy and cultism.” After the war, the South suffered, but it “rose from the ashes” to become the Bible Belt, “a part of the country that has continued to stand firm on the fundamentals of Christian faith.”

HuffPost’s investigation also found students who were both traumatized and ill-equipped for life after attending these schools. Read the full article here.

Voucher Schools Are Teaching Some Truly Insane Things