GOP bill would defund schools who don't force students to memorize patriotic texts

[turbinetree]

By Josh Israel -August 4, 2021 5:26 PM

The bill's sponsor, Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith, once decried federal involvement in determining local school curriculums.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) wants to make sure kids are taught to be patriotic in their schools. His new bill would strip federal funding from any school that does not force them to memorize his selected historical texts.

On Wednesday, Smith filed H.R.4923, the Love America Act. If enacted, it would, according to its official title, "prohibit Federal funding for educational agencies and schools whose students do not read certain foundational texts of the United States and are not able to recite those texts or that teach that those texts are products of white supremacy or racism."

Reps. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) and Barry Moore (R-AL) signed on as original co-sponsors. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) filed a companion bill in the Senate on July 26.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

https://americanindependent.com/gop-bill-school-funding-critical-race-theory-racism-white-supremacy-hawley-smith/

Class warfare right there dude...you have done nothing else accept get that slogan from the right wing dark money groups that fund you .....

[TheBlackAdder]

1. The same GOPers who can't sing the Star Spangled Banner or recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Got it.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Another christofascist solution in search of a problem...

when did schools stop having students say the pledge and learn about the Dec of Independence and Constitution.

this is idiocy unless somewhere in the last 30 years schools stopped doing that wholesale and I missed it.

Sure as hell can't see MO schools giving up on the pledge and other civics education.

[rsdsharp]

3. I believe in teaching civics and history.

But I think in order to cast a yea vote for this bill you should have to demonstrate that you, yourself, could satisfy the requirements.

[Duppers]

15. Very good point.

Bet they couldn't.

[luv2fly]

4. Woah, straight from North Korea

This should make Trump's fat little friend happy.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Grown men scared of children who might think for themselves.

Pathetic losers. Gotta brainwash children to relieve their own anxiety.

&ab_channel=mongchilde

[yonder]

6. General civics requirements would be federal over reach

but his "patriotic texts" are not? What's next, selected passages from the bible?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. If someone drew a cartoon penis, I would expect the face on it to look much like his (nt)

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Oh, but it is hairy. Picture this with four pounds of hair.

.


Start at the 2:40 mark.

.

[Dawgman49]

8. So much more important than teaching critical thinking

[Mr.Bill]

10. Memorizing things does not make someone patriotic.

Questioning things does. I'n sure that concept is beyond the grasp of republicans, though.

This bill will never get out of committee, and is a good example of why we must maintain control of the House.

[MotorCityBeard]

12. Amen to that. I still remember the Preamble to the Constitution

We had to memorize it for 8th grade American History, This was how I and a lot of my classmates remembered it;

I agree with Mr. Bill, knowing this did not make me more patriotic, questioning things did.

[Bettie]

25. That's how I learned it

and I hear the music in my head!

That's also how I learned a bunch of other stuff!

[NH Ethylene]

11. It's called indoctrination.

Leave it to the GOP to propose doing something they accuse Dems of doing.

[CRK7376]

13. I wonder what documents this jackass

wants the kids to memorize? What is the punishment for the kids that don't memorize the documents...?

[NYC Liberal]

17. One kid can't memorize them and the whole school gets defunded.

That’s what it reads like.

Never going to pass.

[RVN VET71]

24. You're forgetting that this is Missouri we're talking about.

[Duppers]

14. Nazis!

[Renew Deal]

16. Students memorizing "patriotic texts" would make the fraud that is conservatism obvious.

[Volaris]

18. Next hes gonna try to outlaw protests against the Vietnam war.

Seriously. The Love America Act?!

Dude, if you have to tell people how big it is....

[Ohio Joe]

19. umm.... So... How exactly do they teach the 13th amendment?

I mean... Without racism? And really that is only one item that I'd love to hear how they think it should be taught.

[Claire Oh Nette]

21. Or the 3/5 Compromise?

It's literally written in the Constitution--they counted Black people as 3/5th of a white person. How is that not systemic racism?

The Fugitive Slave Law allowing militias to hunt down runaway slaves?

John Brown and the raid on Harper's Ferry? They weren't afraid of John Brown, but the slaves he wanted to arm.

The 13th amendment? and the 14th, and the 15th?

Brown v. Board of Education?

the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act? If not for systemic racism, there'd be no need to write special laws saying Poll tax or literacy tests were verboten.

Memorizing isn't comprehending. How many of us pledged allegiance to the flag for Richard Stands?

It's not children who feel anguish over history--it's the racist snowflakes who don't like being reminded that they are racist snowflakes who get all bunged up. They don't want to work toward a more perfect union because they thought it was perfected decades ago.

[SeattleVet]

22. No, no, no...you don't understand...

those aren't the 'patriotic' parts of our history, so those parts can be glossed over and hidden.

They just want to teach the *good* stuff, and pretend that all of the bad stuff either didn't matter, was taken out of context, or never happened.

Remember, to them '1984' is an instruction manual.

[Blue_true]

20. Some people keep sending those assholes to Washington DC. nt

[twodogsbarking]

23. Scary who is in office, isn't it?

[RVN VET71]

26. Makes me think of the classroom in Fahrenheit 451

where all “learning” was rote learning with no thought involved or tolerated.

This man is an ignorant, mindless, un-American idiot. Among Missouri Republicans, alas, that is known as “normal.”

(Wonder if he could recite the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, if called upon to do so.* I feel certain that if he were asked to read and comment on them, it would be his first acquaintance with the documents and he would probably condemn them as communist propaganda.)

*Just kidding. He would probably have trouble reciting his oath of office -- without a large print copy, words spelled phonetically, on a teleprompter in front of him. Do idiots rule in Missouri? Seems to be a large population of them in the state, including a majority of its eligible voters.