AFA Action impacts public school policy

According to Dr. Jameson Taylor, simply eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the woke culture from schools is insufficient.

“School choice is also not enough,” said the director of AFA Action’s Center for Government Renewal, “especially if private schools are required to follow a secularized, government-mandated curriculum. What we need is a plan to make public schools great again. At AFA Action, we’re putting that plan into place.”

Understanding history

Taylor said that making public schools great again requires returning to the recent past, when children had the freedom to pray in school and where the Ten Commandments were not only on the wall but committed to memory by every student.

Ryan Walters understands this history well. As Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, Walters is putting Bibles back in the classroom.

“It’s essential that our kids understand the foundational documents in American history,” said Walters. “We’ve rewritten our history standards to reflect that, and I think we need to go back to having a Bible in every classroom. And I’ve heard that from parents all over the state. … It’s not to push a religion on kids. … It is the way you teach history, and we’ve got to make sure we’re not leaving out parts of history because some people are offended.”

Cultivating character

In Ohio, AFA Action is working with State Rep. Kevin Ritter (R) to teach kids what success looks like. As a teacher and school administrator, Ritter knows what kids need to excel.

“Some people call it ‘the soft skills.’ I call it character and common sense,” Ritter explained. “Of course, kids need to know how to read and do math, but they also need to know how to be responsible, how to respect and care for others, and how to exercise good judgment.”

As of press time, Ritter had introduced a bill in Ohio to teach these character skills alongside the “success sequence.” The success sequence demonstrates that individuals who 1) graduate high school, 2) get a job, 3) get married, and 4) have children within wedlock – in that order – have a 97% chance of being prosperous.

“The success sequence is everything your grandmother would have told you to do,” Taylor said. “But nowadays, some kids never see these behaviors. They don’t know anyone with a stable job. They don’t even really know anyone who is married.”

Reigniting the faith

As part of AFA’s work to restore religion and morality in public schools, the AFA Action team is partnering with the National School Chaplain’s Association (NSCA) and other groups to place chaplains in schools. In Mississippi, AFA worked with the NSCA to introduce legislation – sponsored by Rep. Lester “Bubba” Carpenter (R) – to encourage schools to offer chaplains as a resource to teachers and students.

“Hospitals have chaplains,” said Carpenter. “The military has chaplains. Congress and many state legislatures have chaplains. It’s time for public schools to have [them] too.”

AFA Action also supports efforts to allow public school children to participate in “released time religious education.” These are off-site Bible studies offered during the school day or after-school Bible studies on school grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court has fully vetted and approved both options. (See The Stand, 8/23.)

“A sort of Great Awakening is occurring in public education today,” Taylor concluded. “People are realizing that virtue and courage, as well as faith in God, are necessary for prosperity and happiness. This is not a new political theory. It’s what American education has been about from the very beginning.

“Thanks to leaders like Ryan Walters, Kevin Ritter, and Bubba Carpenter, we’re starting to remember what made us great in the first place.”