Brian Lozenski, Macalester College professor of urban and multicultural education, was the subject of my piece yesterday, “Walz Education Appointee Calls for the Overthrow of the U.S.” The video in which Lozenski called for the overthrow of America was removed from YouTube late last night. In its place, you will now find a link that says, “Video unavailable. This video has been removed by the uploader.”
This, of course, is the prerogative of the “uploader.” But what does it say about Lozenski that he and/or his supporters, have decided to withdraw the video in which he explains his own academic work on education? Lozenski is the de facto leader of the committee charged with telling the teachers of Minnesota how to present the newly required ethnic-studies standards to their students. Can he be trusted to do this now that his desire to overthrow the United States has been exposed — and now that he has failed to stand by or explain away his remarks? Obviously, Lozenski can no longer be trusted to properly serve the teachers, parents, and students of Minnesota. Any ethnic-studies framework that bears his impress is hopelessly tainted.
Minnesota’s new social-studies standards as a whole are fatally flawed. The anti-American principles that guide the new ethnic-studies strand pervade the revised standards in their entirety — even geography, but especially history. We knew that already, but the exposure of Lozenski’s ideology has driven the point home.
Governor Walz must withdraw his new social-studies standards, just as Lozenski has withdrawn his video. It’s time for Minnesota to craft social-studies standards for its students that do not encourage hatred of the United States and contempt for its laws. The public and its representatives should challenge Governor Walz to disband the committee on which Lozenski and his allies sit, reject the new state social-studies standards entirely, and begin again.