Center for American Institutions (CAI), an interdisciplinary research project through Arizona State University (ASU), declared in a new report that higher education’s American history classes focus mostly on social justice revisionism that conclude with a depiction of America as a nation in decline.
In their research, published recently as the first “State of Health” commission report, CAI reviewed 75 introductory history syllabi from dozens of the top 150 national universities ranked by U.S. News and World Report last year. The project members included Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin; Mary Fallin, former governor of Oklahoma; and Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker.
The CAI commission discovered that progressive angles to identity-related terms and topics dominated American history introductory courses: white supremacy, racism, inclusion, exclusion, equity, diversity, masculinity, gender, LGBT, and oppression. Comparatively, the commission claimed that essential founding and other key historical topics were mostly overlooked or heavily criticized, like liberty, federalism, the Constitution, rule of law, Western tradition, the Industrial Revolution, and capitalism.
The commission explained that its first report was focused on civic education because a proper education of the Constitution, federalism, economic expansion, and democratization produce informed voters. They posited that unity in imparting American history leads to a healthier nation, evident through limited polarization and dysfunctionality in politics. They also posited that an improper understanding of the nation’s history results in radicalization, divisiveness, mass disrespect, and antisocial behaviors; the commission cited an overemphasis on identity-related themes as a specific cause of an improper historical education.
On classes that taught American history from the settlement to 1877, the CAI commission found that all syllabi included at least one mention of an identity-related term; 56 percent of classes focused on institutions topics; one-third of courses focused on institutions for less than half of class meetings; 80 percent of courses spent only two class periods or less on the writing, ratification, and contents of the Constitution; 11 percent of classes didn’t cover the drafting of the Constitution in Philadelphia; and 63 percent of syllabi included institutional phrases such as “liberty” and “freedom,” but no syllabi mentioned “the rule of law” or “Western tradition.”
The commission also found that those syllabi that tended to mention institutions more also mentioned identities more, regardless of syllabus length.
On classes that taught history from 1877 to the present, the commission found that over 60 percent of syllabi included one “divisive” identity-focused term; over 40 percent didn’t mention the terms like “freedom,” “prosperity,” or “religion”; over 10 percent of class meetings focused exclusively on the Civil Rights Movement or feminism; and only 10 percent discussed Phyllis Schlafly, a major critic of second wave feminism.
The commission further found that instructors angled their teaching on this period of history with a fixation on the exclusion of minorities, oppression and expression of gender identity and sexual orientation, and voicing anti-market bias. The CAI commission added that coverages of political, legal, military, progressive, and religious histories lacked context and depth.
The research team found that most of the classes conclude with a characterization of America as a nation in decline and an ignorance of positive points in recent American history, such as women gaining voting rights.
“Through lectures, discussions, and required readings, students are directed to see a nation in decline. [The] United States is portrayed as a nation that never fulfilled its ideals of equality, defined as social equality,” stated the report.
The study was preempted by the discovery that 40 percent of students were below proficient in American history and civics, according to last year’s report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. CAI Director Donald Critchlow stated in the report introduction that higher education offered the poorest quality of education on American history and civics: social justice ideology over truth.
“American colleges and universities are being forced to become centers of remedial learning, but they are failing to provide basic facts of American history and civics to their students,” said Critchlow. “[M]any teachers of introductory American history courses simply are not conveying foundational knowledge to their students. Instead, a heavy emphasis rests on racial, ethnic, and gender identity, usually to the detriment of a comprehensive and necessary knowledge of our nation’s past.”
In order to counter these alleged issues with higher education American history and civics courses, the CAI commission recommended the establishment of new interdisciplinary degree programs with more expansive civic education opportunities.
Additionally, the commission recommended greater educational transparency: public postings of syllabi, approximate student enrollments and majors, student enrollments per faculty or affiliated faculty, publication of faculty meeting minutes, faculty and upper administration announcements, and a two-year report of occupational outcomes for majors.
The commission also recommended teachers to be evaluated based on teaching and research outcomes, and for higher education institutions to cease requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements from faculty hires.
CAI will issue a second State of the Health commission report on Civic Education in the Military next spring.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Maricopa’s Republican County Attorney is joining law enforcement organizations in pushing back against federal monitoring of police departments.
Last week, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell posted her displeasure with the principle of federal monitoring of law enforcement departments, writing, “Look no further than MCSO to see what ‘federal monitoring’ does to agencies. Monitors (people paid to determine whether an agency is in compliance) have ZERO incentive to find compliance. It will cost the taxpayers MILLIONS and crime will increase.”
Look no further than MCSO to see what "federal monitoring" does to agencies. Monitors (people paid to determine whether an agency is in compliance) have ZERO incentive to find compliance. It will cost the taxpayers MILLIONS and crime will increase.@MCSOAZ@andybiggs4az… https://t.co/InGA5Vs3lc
— Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (@Rachel1Mitchell) November 4, 2023
Mitchell’s forceful comment was in response to a post from the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA), which shared an opinion piece in a local publication, entitled “Phoenix Deserves Better.” The article was written by PLEA’s President, Darrell Kriplean, to counter another piece in support of federal monitoring of the City of Phoenix’s Police Department.
Kriplean called the endorsement of federal monitoring “both dangerous and deceitful,” opining that “while it’s hard to comprehend how someone without any law enforcement experience…could so boldly write a piece designed to inflame the emotions of our citizens through emotionally laden rhetoric, it certainly is not a surprising tactic.”
The association’s president excoriated the motivation and genesis of federal monitoring, saying, “Federal Consent Decrees on police agencies have been a stain on American communities since their inception in 1994 and their continued failure combined with the cottage industry of ‘experts’ making millions from them, have no choice but to inject scare tactics and lies into the communities they prey on in an attempt to justify the continued madness.”
According to the piece, the City of Seattle’s Police Department, among other American cities, have been under federal monitoring, and the price tag and results have been crippling. Kriplean added, “Seattle has been in a consent decree since 2011 and it just crossed over the $120-million-mark for its decree and the only thing that has changed in the Emerald City other than record crime is a police department with the lowest staffing since 1991. The quality of life is gone. Not even their $30,000 hiring bonus can help them, and they currently have more murders than police hires.”
On August 5, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a “pattern or practice investigation into the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department (PhxPD)” to “assess all types of use of force by PhxPD officers, including deadly force.” The DOJ highlighted that its investigation would “include a comprehensive review of PhxPD’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.”
At the time of the announcement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “When we conduct pattern or practice investigations to determine whether the Constitution or federal law has been violated, our aim is to promote transparency and accountability. This increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety. We know that law enforcement shares these goals.”
Earlier this year, the City of Phoenix and Phoenix Police Department updated people on the progress of the investigation, alerting readers that “city and police leaders have provided the DOJ with documents, videos, interviews, ride-a-longs, and access to training sessions with the department.” The City’s bulletin revealed that the DOJ investigation “has come with challenges, as it took several months to negotiate a method for sharing sensitive law enforcement information which complied with FBI standards.”
Per the City of Phoenix’s information, the DOJ’s Civil Pattern or Practice investigation into the Phoenix Police Department “is the 71st investigation of its kind since the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.” If DOJ finds “patterns or practices of misconduct,” then Phoenix will likely find itself with a federal monitor.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The city of Phoenix reported having an 82 percent success rate with admitting The Zone’s homeless into shelters after a court order to clean up the infamous downtown homeless encampment.
The majority success rate came just ahead of the court-ordered deadline last week, Nov. 4. Of the 716 homeless in The Zone, 590 consented to entering a shelter according to Rachel Milne, director of the Office of Homeless Solutions. That’s a success rate of over 82 percent.
Milne also said that they managed to reconnect some of those sheltered homeless with their families, or got them established with treatment programs. Milne says that shelter only serves as the beginning of securing permanent housing for the homeless.
“We need to make sure those 590 individuals that did move on to an indoor location now have the support systems and the proper services to help them in their homelessness,” said Milne.
That concern relates to the recidivism rates of The Zone’s residents, something noted by the Maricopa County Superior Court when it ordered the city to clear The Zone.
In his ruling, Judge Scott Blaney criticized city officials equating 70 percent of individuals accepting services as a permanent movement from the streets. Blaney ruled the data as potentially misleading, noting that the city wasn’t able to disclose how many of those individuals accepted a “free hotel room for the night” before returning to The Zone the next day.
As part of their compliance with the court order, the city established clear signage prohibiting encampments and other related criminal activity around the area that formerly housed The Zone.
🧵INBOX: Welcome to The Zone, the epicenter of the homeless crisis that @CityofPhoenixAZ refuses to solve. This man is one of many that will likely live and die on these streets under the city's current approach to homelessness. I investigated & uncovered shocking details… pic.twitter.com/snb8QkvjsA
AZ Free News published a series of reports on the nature of The Zone: rampant crime and lawlessness: murders and assaults, drug use and dealings, prostitution, gang violence, theft and property destruction, bordered all around by knee-deep and blocks-long biohazards.
One of the lawyers that sued the city over its handling of The Zone, Ilan Wurman, marveled at the success rate the city of Phoenix experienced when forced to meet a court deadline to help the homeless.
“We did it. Because of our lawsuit, the City has cleared the Zone,” said Wurman. “And look at the huge number of folks who ACCEPTED SHELTER. Just incredible.”
We did it. Because of our lawsuit, the City has cleared the Zone. And look at the huge number of folks who ACCEPTED SHELTER. Just incredible.
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Election Task Force (ETF) admitted that the 2022 election under her administration as secretary of state disenfranchised certain voters.
In the ETF’s final report, issued last week, the group recommended 16 improvements, two of which concerned hotly contested issues on eligible voters’ registration status: provisional ballot forms and cross-county voter registration. The 14 other issues spanned election administration, voter registration, early voting, election day and after procedures, and election equipment and security.
These provisional ballot and cross-county voter registration standards and procedures caused some voters to be disenfranchised last year.
Concerning provisional ballot forms, the ETF noted that no law exists to direct counties to have provisional ballots double as voter registration forms for eligible voters who weren’t registered prior to casting their vote. However, it is standard practice adopted by many counties, as noted by the ETF. The ETF also said that inconsistencies in provisional ballot forms across counties resulted in disparate treatment of voters.
“[T]here is no statutory requirement for counties to adopt this practice, which can result in inconsistent treatment of similarly-situated voters in different counties, and a potential decrease in the practice with turnover in County Recorder and elections offices,” said the ETF.
Maricopa County, which houses the state’s largest voting population, doesn’t have its provisional ballots double as voter registration forms. That meant that unregistered, eligible voters who voted in the primary through a provisional ballot remained unregistered, and therefore cast provisional ballots in the general election that were ultimately rejected. The county offered the following explanation to AZ Free News:
“Maricopa County does not use provisional ballots as registration forms. We do have voter registration forms available at vote centers. An individual must be registered to vote at least 29 before an election to be eligible to vote in that election. So, if someone registers to vote via a registration form at a vote center and then votes a provisional ballot, that provisional ballot will not be valid as they still are not within that 29-day time frame.”
Yet Pima County, which handles the state’s second-largest voting population, does use provisional ballot forms as voter registration.
Concerning cross-county voter registration, the ETF recommended changing state law to allow voters who moved counties to change their address up to and on Election Day, which voters may already do if they change addresses within the same county. Current law requires voters who move to another county to update their address at least 29 days prior to Election Day. The ETF noted that some voters were unaware of address changes to their voter registration
“Some voters are not aware of having made changes to their voter registration through the MVD, or may forget having made a separate request,” stated the ETF.
As alluded to by the ETF, hundreds of voters came forward after the 2022 election to allege that very disenfranchisement happened to them. In his arguments for a new trial in May, failed attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh’s legal team introduced sworn affidavits of hundreds of voters claiming disenfranchisement due to bureaucratic failures.
One allegedly disenfranchised Maricopa County voter given as an example, Marlena, attempted to vote on Election Day but was denied. Marlena had reportedly experienced issues with the county’s registration system for months: earlier that year, she discovered that her registration had changed without her knowledge and consent. Evidence indicated that Marlena attempted to correct her voter registration before the deadline and subsequently received confirmation from Maricopa County confirming her registration. Yet, she was denied her vote on Election Day.
During a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting in September, county officials noted that individuals have mistakenly checked the wrong box and unknowingly changed their voter registration, when re-registering a vehicle in another county.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Two Arizona legislators are proposing changes to the state’s hospital.
Last week, Senators Catherine Miranda and T.J. Shope wrote an opinion piece for the Arizona Republic with their legislative recommendations to improve the Arizona State Hospital over the next session.
The bipartisan duo revealed that their thoughts stem from concerns “about shortcomings in Arizona’s behavioral health system, especially the system of care for folks with a serious mental illness.” There were three areas that the lawmakers identified for change, which were “better oversight and governance of the Arizona State Hospital, improved community reintegration resources, and more secure residential treatment options.”
In their article, Miranda and Shope telegraphed their legislative proposals for all three areas. For ‘oversight,’ the two made the case that the setup for the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) running and regulating the state hospital is “flawed, and that the Legislature should split up the two to improve the oversight and care for patients. The senators hope to make this happen by ensuring that “the superintendent of the facility would report to an independent, appointed governing body composed of people with experience overseeing complex psychiatric facilities.”
For ‘reintegration,’ Miranda and Shope proposed the development of “a small ‘community reintegration’ unit to serve as a transitional unit for patients who are approaching discharge from the state hospital but who still need structured care.” This proposal was already identified as a “critical gap” by the state’s hospital in its Clinical Improvement Plan.
For ‘facilities,’ Miranda and Shope discussed the need for “persons with serious mental illnesses” to have “safe places to receive treatment with more structure and better qualified staff than are available in existing residential behavioral health group homes.” The senators asserted that former-Governor Doug Ducey’s final budget “included funds to build three such secure residential treatment facilities, including funding to staff them,” but that “those funds were swept out of the current budget.”
Senators Miranda and Shope won’t have to wait long to start the engine on their recommendations to change the Arizona State Hospital with the first day of the new legislative session around two months away.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Arizona Governor’s Office is taking action to provide more resources for elections ahead of a crucial year of political contests.
Last week, Governor Katie Hobbs announced that she would be earmarking “$2.3 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding to support free, fair and secure elections.” The governor also revealed the existence of three new executive orders “to authorize paid civic duty leave for state employees to serve as poll workers, make state buildings available as polling locations, and require state agencies to provide voter registration information and assistance to the Arizona citizens they serve.”
In a statement, Hobbs said, “As Secretary of State I oversaw the most secure elections in Arizona history, but I know we must continue to improve Arizona’s elections ahead of 2024. Election officials and voters are facing new challenges when it comes to administering elections and participating in our democracy. I am thrilled to immediately address some of the problems identified by the Bipartisan Elections Task Force to ensure Arizona voters can make their voices heard.”
The flurry of actions from Hobbs follows the completion of a report from the Governor’s Bipartisan Elections Task Force, which was issued a day earlier, on November 1. The Task Force, established on January 6, focused on five main topics under the umbrella of the Arizona elections system, which were Election Administration, Voter Registration, Early Voting, Election Day and Post-election Procedures, and Election Equipment and Security.
In the final report, the Task Force unveiled proposals under each of the topics. For Election Administration, proposals included a Poll Worker Communication Platform, Incentives to Improve Poll Worker Recruitment, Annual Election Officer Certification Trainings, Election Fellowship Program, and Comprehensive Website for Voter Information. For Voter Registration, proposals included Provisional Ballot Form as Voter Registration Form, Cross-Country Voter Registration, Voting Rights Restoration, and AVID (Access Voter Information Database) Funding. For Early Voting, proposals included Disability Resource Liaison, Emergency Voting to Final Weekend Voting, and Ballot Return Interference. For Election Day and After, proposals included Ensuring Timely Recounts and Reconciliation Best Practices Guidelines. And for Election Equipment and Security, proposals included Election Security Advancements and Election Worker Code of Conduct.
The Task Force concluded its report by writing, “We can, and should, continue to refine our election system to ensure voters have access to the polls and that our election officials – the guardians of our democracy – have the resources to do their jobs well. The Task Force’s proposals are motivated by a deep commitment to these goals, and to the overarching goal of protecting democracy in our State.”
Members of the Task Force were Ken Bennett, State Senator District 1; Michelle Burchill, Yavapai County Recorder; Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, Pima County Recorder; Christina Estes-Werther, Attorney and Former Arizona Elections Director; Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Attorney and Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Indian Legal Clinic; Adrian Fontes, Arizona Secretary of State; Renaldo Fowler, Arizona Center for Disability Law, Senior Staff Advocate; Alex Gulotta, All Voting is Local, Arizona State Director; Don Henninger, The Carter Center, Representative; Katie Hobbs, Arizona Governor (Chair); Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County Elections Director; Ben Lane, City of Scottsdale City Clerk; Ken Matta, Election Security Expert; Michael Moore, Chief Information Security Officer; Brad Nelson, Former Pima County Elections Director; Helen Purcell, Former Maricopa County Recorder (Co-Chair); Alma Schultz, Santa Cruz County Elections Director; and Laura Terech, State Representative District 4.
Helen Purcell, the Task Force’s Co-Chair, weighed in on the accomplishments of her group, saying, “This Task Force is made up of talented, bipartisan experts who have diverse on-the-ground experience with Arizona’s elections. It was rewarding to see them come together week after week to brainstorm where additional support is needed, collaborate on potential solutions, and develop the proposals in the final report. Thank you to Governor Hobbs for bringing us together with a unified goal and for her unwavering commitment to protecting democracy in our State.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes added, “I’d like to thank Governor Hobbs, Recorder Purcell, and the entire Task Force for prioritizing safe, secure, and accurate elections. I must also mention all our staff for being generous with their expertise and insight. The work of the Task Force, the Governor’s Executive Orders and the much-needed $2 million in election support will be critical in building towards smooth and successful elections in 2024.”
Earlier this year, the Chair of the Arizona House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Representative Jacqueline Parker, vowed, on behalf of her panel, to “swiftly reject any election-related recommendations of this biased, corrupt, & secretive task force.”
Hobbs hasn’t bothered to respond to my request for more information yet. Safe to say that her task force is not interested in transparency & the House Elections Committee will swiftly reject any election-related recommendations of this biased, corrupt, & secretive “task force”. https://t.co/fL92tezTIi
— Rep. Jacqueline Parker (@electjacqparker) May 3, 2023
By signing the executive orders and designating the ARPA funds for assignment, Hobbs appears to be bypassing any cooperation, as of now, with the Legislature to improve the state’s elections systems.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
