HEARING RECAP: Owens Confronts Antisemitism in America’s K-12 Schools

WASHINGTON — Education and Workforce Vice Chair Burgess Owens (UT-04) participated in a Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education hearing titled “From Playground to Classroom: The Spread of Antisemitism in K-12 Schools.”

Click here or above to watch.

Rep. Owens opened his remarks by condemning the spread of antisemitism in classrooms, warning that hatred is being taught to America’s youngest students.

Owens: “Antisemitism is a terrible cancer that not only threatens the wellbeing of Jewish students, but also the emotional and spiritual health of every other student affected by it. … Children are not born to judge each other based on race, creed, color, or culture.”

Owens questioned witnesses on how antisemitism is taking root in teacher training programs, classrooms, and school curricula across the country. Nicole Neily, President and Founder of Defending Education, testified that many teachers colleges are turning out activists instead of educators.

Ms. Neily: “Teachers today in teachers colleges are not learning how to be better educators, how to teach phonics. Instead, they’re learning to view the world through an oppressor-oppressed matrix. … These are teachers colleges that are at state schools, they’re at private schools, and the fact that our teacher licensing pipeline mandates that you must have a teaching degree from these schools … means that you have to marinate in these ideas steeped in critical race theory, queer theory, [and] anti-whiteness privilege.”

Rachel Lerman, Vice Chair and Director at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, described a California case where antisemitic ethnic studies materials were uncovered during litigation:

Ms. Lerman: “We found members of the committee that approved these curriculas saying, ‘How do we handle the Jewish problem?’ … One of the Jewish teachers who was on the committee [was] called an effing baby and a colonialized mind.”

Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky, Director of Education and National Security at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testified about foreign funding fueling antisemitic materials. 

Dr. Shufutinsky: “Part of that is coming from Qatari Foundation International where they’re funding Arabic language and culture classes in multiple school districts in multiple states. Some of that course material then is a complete revision of history, obviously demonizing the state of Israel and also misdefining Jews as an ethno-religious group.”

The full hearing is available to watch here. 

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