Now that students are back in school, parents sometimes take a moment to look at the textbooks their children are reading. Often, they are shocked at what the authors of the textbooks write. Daniel Buck and Anna Low (American Enterprise Institute) also recommend that you look at the textbook publishers themselves.

They argue that the bias in textbooks is real. “Skim through the voting section of McGraw Hill’s civics textbook and you’ll see images from Hillary Clinton’s and Elizabeth Warren’s campaigns. Grab the same publisher’s World History textbook, and you’ll read that the First Intifada was a ‘mostly unarmed uprising against Israeli occupation,’ conveniently omitting discussion of the 200 murdered Jews.”

They point to Pearson Education that launched a Pride 365 initiative designed to incorporate LGBTQ+ themes into all classrooms every day. Houghton Mifflin announced its support of Black Lives Matter by establishing a Black Alliance employee group. They describe one history textbook (still approved on the College Board’s website) that depicts Donald Trump’s election as a racist, white majority reacting to fear of the growing ethnic diversity in America. It also depicts Trump as mentally unstable.

They do admit that “these textbooks shy away from the radical conclusion of Howard Zinn or the 1619 Project.” But the narrative is “one of big government ever-championing over conservative recalcitrance.” They concluded that “it will take far more than a few executive orders to reroute American schools back onto a path of traditional academic and political neutrality.” That’s why parents and grandparents should be concerned.