Michigan Democrats are petitioning against a “far-right” school curriculum revision over its removal of references to climate change, the LGBT community and Islam.
The recently proposed social studies standards, drafted largely by Republican state senator Patrick Colbeck, have plucked out climate change information from the 6th grade geography unit and dropped references to various minority groups, according to MLive. The phrase “core democratic values” was also eliminated.
A petition — seeming launched by Ann Arbor school board secretary Jeff Gaynor — claims the revisions are “far-right” and “endanger not only our past, but our future.”
“By altering the standards for teaching history in Michigan, they cut many people out of history – and silence the work of those who have worked to fulfill the American promise of liberty and justice for all,” the petition states, seeking 5,000 signatures.
The curriculum would be applied to K-12 students throughout Michigan.
State senator David Knezek (D-Dearborn Heights) claimed it’s “mind-numbing” how the proposed curriculum describes the KKK as an anti-Republican group and not anti-black.
“Five references to the NAACP and the role that they played in desegregation, eliminated. Every reference to the LGBT community, eliminated. Every reference to Roe v. Wade, eliminated,” Knezek argued during a speech last Tuesday, adding that Republicans are “quite literally attempting to rewrite history.”
Knezek also accused Colbeck of misinterpreting the “core democratic values” phrase as a reference to the Democratic Party.
The petition authors created a “Defend MI History” Facebook page calling the conservatives “extremists.”
Michigan’s education board in August will review public comments on the matter, but a final vote on the curriculum is not yet scheduled, Bridge Magazine reports. (RELATED: Half Of Detroit’s Teachers Advise Applicants To Apply Elsewhere)
Colbeck, representing Wayne County north of Detroit, is currently running for governor.