Since the 1950s, the Department of Education’s National Resource Center (NRC) program has sent federal grants to academic centers that conduct outreach. While the centers were initially created to teach future government workers language skills and strengthen their understanding of the world, they’ve been hijacked by wokeism, argues Neetu Arnold, a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
Numerous examples show how left-wing ideals have become entrenched within these centers—sometimes in ways that are hostile to the U.S. and its interests. For instance, George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies hosted several events last year that pushed blatantly anti-Israel views about the Gaza conflict, characterizing Israel’s actions as “genocide.” Meantime, CU–Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies hosted a symposium on the radical climate justice movement, and the Atlanta Global Studies Center conducted a workshop that encouraged teachers to incorporate social justice into their Arabic language classes.
“The nearly $30 million that the United States spends on the NRC program does significant damage. Because the centers are supposed to work with K-12 teachers, their radicalism is not confined to academia,” Arnold explains. “It seeps into children’s classrooms, where it skews the way kids are taught about global affairs.”
It’s time to end federal support for these programs, she argues. Read her piece here.
