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How This California School's Woke Education Program Backfired

Townhall has reported on many instances where schools focused on “woke” curriculum, such as gender theory or Critical Race Theory, all the while students struggled with basic lessons in reading, science, history and math. This week, a report revealed that one failing school district’s’ hyperfixation in “woke” curriculum caused students to suffer even more in these areas. 

A San Francisco Bay-area elementary school that struggled with some of the lowest math and reading scores in the country hired a company called “Woke Kindergarten” to train teachers and hopefully boost the school’s scores. Two years later, the students’ scores are reportedly worse. 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Glassbrook Elementary in Hayward, California,  spent $250,000 in federal funds on the program. Afterwards, there was a 4 percent decrease in both math and reading proficiency among students in the past two years. Less than 12 percent of students can read at their grade level, and less than 4 percent are proficient in math. 

The school superintendent, Jason Reimann, told the outlet that “Woke Kindergarten” was meant to boost attendance rather than test scores. He also claimed that the program was supported by parents and teachers. 

"We are in favor 100% of abolishing systems of oppression where they hold our students back. What I do believe is we should pick providers based on their work and how effective they are,” Reimann said.

According to Woke Kindergarten’s website, its goal is to support educators and organizations “in their commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-black and queer and trans liberation.” The organization’s website is full with anti-police, anti-Israel, anti-capitalism, and pro-LGBTQ+ resources for schools to indoctrinate children with their radical left-wing agenda. There’s even a “woke word of the day” webpage, which teaches children words like “ceasefire,” “strike,” “abolish,” “anti-racist,” and “protest.”

In a video unearthed by Libs of Tik Tok, Woke Kindergarten’s founder said that Israel “has no right to exist.” 

One school teacher, Tiger Craven-Neeley, told the Chronicle that Woke Kindergarten instructed him to focus on “disrupt[ing] whiteness” in the classroom, adding that one of the trainers referred to our country as the “so-called United States.”

“What does that mean for a third-grade classroom?” the teacher said. 

One teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Chronicle, said: “It slowly became very apparent if you were a dissenting voice that it’s not what they wanted to hear.”

The district defended the decision to utilize Woke Kindergarten, claiming that it boosted attendance rates. And, the school has fallen even lower on the state’s watch list.