The Casa Grande Union High School Governing Board (CGUHSGB) voted 4-1 on July 11 to adopt the history curriculum for a year from Savvas Learning Company LLC, a company known for producing “woke” educational materials. The board justified the decision since the existing curriculum was outdated, having not been updated within the past 15 years. Also, the board pointed out that some teachers had already begun incorporating the Savvas textbooks.
Steve Hunt, the lone school board member who voted against the curriculum, told The Arizona Sun Times that he extensively looked into Savvas and its materials and found “very disturbing information” including “woke” teaching.
“I read the last three chapters of the history textbook, which covers recent U.S. history, and it takes a very left-leaning view of the last few presidents,” he said. “There was a positive discussion of Black Lives Matter, which didn’t address all the damage caused by the riots. Earlier parts of the book had equally disturbing coverage of the Founding Fathers, World War I, and World War II.”
During the board meeting, Renee Morales, director of curriculum for the school district, discussed how several teachers had already begun using the Savvas curriculum in other subjects. She said they sent bids to five providers, and only three responded. Savvas provided the lowest price. Hunt said during the meeting that it was very concerning that the teachers went ahead with the curriculum even though the board had not approved it as required by law. Hunt said he was disturbed that “all stakeholders” were absent at the meetings, such as teachers, students, voters, and taxpayers.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times