The Martin Center recently published an article on the severe “wokeness” problem at Oklahoma University. Today, we feature a depressingly similar piece focused on Idaho. Despite the state’s strong conservative inclination, the forces of “progressivism” have invaded its universities, seeking to turn them into purveyors of social justice instead of knowledge.
Author Anna Miller of the Idaho Freedom Foundation writes, “Although Idaho has Republican supermajorities in both state legislative bodies, Republican state board members are part of the education establishment. Amid public backlash against the politicization of the education system, the board has claimed all allegations are ‘unfounded’ while simultaneously endorsing CSJ advancement — and denying that that is what it is doing.”
This is the same approach we have seen in many other places — smuggle lots of leftist ideology into the curriculum and, when caught, say that it is nothing to complain about. Miller is blowing the whistle.
“The ideas behind both DEI and CSJ,” she writes, “emphasize that American society is irredeemably racist or sexist, group identity must transcend individuality, and equity must be celebrated while meritocracy stigmatized. The two cannot be divorced. DEI is simply the mechanism by which CSJ is applied to universities by implementing policies attempting to overturn supposed systems of oppression.”
In other words, these initiatives are about planting the seeds of leftist belief in students. Citizens of Idaho shouldn’t put up with it.
Miller concludes that the state legislature needs to wake up: “The more Idaho’s legislature wakes up to the threat of the establishment, the more they will object and try to stop it. This is what the establishment most fears and wants to avoid. A wide-awake legislature should starve the board of public funds until its leadership commits to reforming institutions of higher education.”