Education

Lowering Standards
Republicans generally support remarkably low academic standards. Texas Republicans in particular approved a platform opposing "higher order thinking skills" instruction in schools because it might undermine "parental authority" (even though the same platform calls for corporal punishment in schools, which itself undermines "parental authority"). Low-effort thought also correlates with conservatism, giving Texas Republicans an obvious motive in preventing the states' students from engaging in higher-order thinking. Texas' requirements are so low that its own public colleges and universities call them inadequate, ineffective, and fail to meet college-readiness standards. Florida's Republican education commissioner Tony Bennett (appointed by Republican Rick Scott who said he was "doing a great job") was forced to resign after changing academic standards to favor private schools receiving Republican funding.

Politicizing and Rewriting History
The Texas Board of Education declared that history textbooks are anti-Christian. They, alongside Tea Party groups in other states such as Tennessee, demand that textbooks remove references to slavery and ignore any mention of the country's founders owning slaves. They believe that criticism regarding early Americans' treatments of Native Americans is "made-up." Texas' new school standards require teaching the positive aspects of slavery, elevating Jefferson Davis to the same level as Abraham Lincoln, and removing references to any separation between church and state. Attempts to rewrite history are also emerging in Mississippi.

Eliminating Funding, Privatizing Education
Conservatives increasingly call for reducing or eliminating funding for public education at all levels. This includes proposals to privatize education and to use public funding for school vouchers to allow students to go to private schools. Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has stated the "government should get out of the education business," even as he himself used public funding to pay for his childrens' private education.

Louisiana plans to privatize its public education system, shifting tens of millions of dollars out of public schools and providing it to parents as vouchers for private schools. Eligible private schools include one whose "lessons" consist entirely of TV watching, and other schools using social science textbooks saying liberals threaten global prosperity, Bible-based math books that don't cover modern concepts, and biology texts based on refuting evolution. Some private schools in Louisiana literally teach students that the Loch Ness monster is real in an effort to disprove evolution. The private schools are also exempt from standardized tests, meaning they have no benchmark to compare performance to.

Vilifying Education as Liberal Indoctrination
Conservatives, including Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, often decry higher education, saying college indoctrinates students to become secular liberals (even though Santorum himself went to college and is very religious and conservative). Santorum himself even called President Obama a "snob" for wanting everyone to go to college, and also believes that pre-school and kindergarten programs exist to "indoctrinate your children".

Additionally, Santorum lied about education requirements in the "blue" state of California - saying that courses in American History don't exist in eight public universities there as part of his (and the conservative movement in general's) effort to portray liberals as anti-American. However, California public universities require United States History as a prerequisite for admission, and the only one which doesn't explicitly offer a course in United States History is strictly a graduate medical school (and they do offer courses in American Medical History).

Abolishing the Department of Education
As the Tea Party and extreme Republicans gain strength, the idea of abolishing the Department of Education has also gained strength. Below is a list of candidates and representatives who really do want to abolish the Department of Education: Ann Coulter, prominent conservative activist, has even called the Department of Education the "most oppressive of all" government departments, a statement that receives an incredible applause after she makes it (at roughly 7:20 in the video). She goes on to state that Department of Education employees and recipients of grants from the Department are your "sworn enemy."
 * Republican Governor Candidate Nathan Deal (Georgia)
 * Republican Senate Candidate Joe Miller (Alaska)
 * Republican Senate Candidate Lina McMahon (Massachusetts)
 * Republican Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky)
 * Republican Senate Candidate Sharron Angle (Nevada)

Education Leads to Crime
In New Hampshire, state representative Bob Kingsbury has stated that Kindergarten leads to a 400 percent jump in crime levels with towns that offer it.

Teaching Christianity as Fact

 * Springboro, Ohio's school board, led by Kelly Kohls (also head of the Warren County Tea Party), continues to consider adding creationism to its school curriculum - even though a previous attempt already failed due to public opposition, and the current proposal also faces opposition from students, teachers, and the public.
 * Oklahoma's anti-science bill that allows teachers to openly question universally accepted scientific theories such as evolution, the chemical origins of life, and global warming was passed by the state's education committee.

Continuing News

 * 5/13/2015: Homeschooling Leader: 'Your Kids Are Going To Be Bludgeoned To Death Intellectually