Supt. Cade Brumley, 1,000+ Parents May Have Saved Public Education in LA for a Generation

• By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News — Last year, when I received a call from the Louisiana Department of Education asking me to serve on the 25-member Content Standards Review Committee for Social Studies, I was happy to accept the invitation.

Little did I know how important the work would be or how it might change the direction of our state for a generation or more to come.

Today parents across the nation are up in arms over Critical Race Theory, rewriting of history, diminishing the Founders Fathers and other heroes of American history, and teaching our kids that America is an evil nation based on racism.

Low Expectations. I expected the Content Standards Committee for Social Studies to continue this leftward agenda, push Louisiana deeper into “woke” culture, and redefine our state for the worse.  When the Content Standards Review Committee for Social Studies held its first meeting in June 2021, that seemed exactly what was about to happen!

A Very Liberal Committee. The committee itself was made up almost entirely of educators.  At the first meeting, it was easy to tell that this group was very liberal indeed.  As I read their first draft of new standards, I was shocked and appalled.  They were even worse than I anticipated.

Content Must Be Reviewed Every Seven Years.  State law provides that the content of all social studies courses — from American history to Louisiana history to civics and geography — must be reviewed and updated every seven years.  Actually, it had been 10 years since the content standards were last reviewed.  So the process was three years behind.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has the ultimate responsibility for approving content standards, and it appointed this committee to review the old standards and propose new ones.  The committee’s jurisdiction included all social studies courses from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Selection of Textbooks Is Done After Content Has Been Approved. We are talking about the content of social studies courses — not the textbooks or teaching materials.  After the content standards are adopted, then textbooks and other materials which reflect the approved content have be chosen.  That is a separate process.

Committee’s Standards.  The committee began to work its way through the content standards. I felt they were on their way to producing another 1619 Project remaking our history as being all about slavery, discrimination, and injustice.

However, early on, parents across the state began to wake up about what was going on. They started coming to the committee meetings and commenting.  Their comments urged the committee to take a traditional approach to American history and civics.

At one meeting, nearly 100 parents testified, all had essentially the same message — stop tearing down our heritage and rewriting our history.

Nevertheless, when the final version of the committee’s work came to a vote, it was nearly as bad as the first draft.  I strongly opposed and spoke against the proposal. Nevertheless, it passed 25 to 1!  I was the one!

However, that was not the end of the story.  When Supt. Cade Brumley presented the draft to BESE, he asked for permission to continue to receive public comments and to integrate the best suggestions into the standards.  BESE agreed.

That’s when the real work began.  Parents from all over Louisiana began to weigh-in and comment on the proposal.  Altogether the Department of Education received more than 2,800 comments from about 1,000 citizens.  Supt. Brumley and his staff worked long and hard to read and understand the public comments, and they made a sincere effort to integrate the best suggestions into the final draft of the content standards.

In the end, it was a completely different document.  Real history and the truth of the American experience were front and center!

Virtually everything fraudulent was removed and a truthful, refreshing portrait of America and Louisiana were presented.

After much thought, study, and behind the scenes discussion, BESE approved the new standards unanimously!  BESE is a diverse group, which spans the gamut of political philosophy.  So a unanimous vote was impressive.

What do the standards say and how are they different?  That’s a bit difficult to quickly summarize because the content review standards are so lengthy and involved.  However, I am attaching a chart which reflects a simple word search for the content standards, comparing the original draft and the final draft.  It will tell you a lot!

Here are some of the things Supt. Cade Brumley has said about the standards:

‘These standards were formed by a year of feedback, demonstrating why an engaged, informed citizenry is essential to protecting, sustaining, and improving our constitutional republic.”

“The standards reflect the totality of the events that have made America an exceptional nation.” 

“As citizens, we have a duty to properly educate our students in civics, economics, geography, and history. These standards accomplish that while highlighting Louisiana’s rich heritage and illuminating how the United States has become the greatest country in the history of the world.”  

  “We must, and we shall, teach our children the fragility of liberty. We must, and we shall, teach our students to appreciate the majesty of our country and their obligations as citizens to safeguard America’s founding principles. We must, and we shall, teach our students the triumphs of our nation and the immense magnitude of the sacrifices made by those who came before us.”

  “President Ronald Reagan said, ‘Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.’ I believe these standards create a Freedom Framework for Louisiana educators to cultivate those aspirations every single day.”

Having served on the Content Review Standards Committee for the past year and fought to restore real history to our classrooms, I couldn’t agree more!