Racial Unity Team and Oyster River Equity & Justice Joint Statement Regarding PragerU and NH Public Schools 

The mission of New Hampshire’s Racial Unity Team (RŪT) is “to advance relationships among people of different racial identities, increase understanding, and reduce racial bias in our communities.” Inherent in this mission is our focus on fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB) within NH public schools. 

Oyster River Equity & Justice (OREJ) is also committed to this work. Additionally, one of our guiding principles is to work explicitly toward “de-centering Whiteness, patriarchy, ableism, and heteronormativity within educational curricula, policies, and practices.” 

For these reasons, we at both RŪT and OREJ are vehemently opposed to the proposal brought before the NH State Board of Education to approve PragerU’s online financial literacy course for public school students as part of the state’s Learn Everywhere program. 

As many(1) have already pointed out, not only is the online course (which the unaccredited PragerU itself characterizes as “edutainment”) currently being considered for approval an inadequate substitute for what typically comprises a semester or half-semester long course in NH’s public schools; PragerU proudly proclaims(2) that its goals include “creating the next generation of young personalities” who “push back” against what they call “radical, left-wing wokeness.” Some of the ideological programming offered and promoted on their website includes: 

● A justification of the colonies’ (and, later, the U.S.’s) use of chattel slavery by pointing out slavery’s existence long before “the first slaves [sic] came to Jamestown”; 

● A documentary entitled “Masculinity” that explores “why…boys and young men [are] being emasculated and how…this cultural trend [is] hurting society”; and 

● “Myth Mash,”a series for middle and high school students that “smashes the anti-American, leftist lies infecting classrooms”. 

In addition, the founder of PragerU, Dennis Prager, is a known conservative pundit who has spouted harmful rhetoric (3) that, among other things, denies the trauma of sexual assault survivors (3/15/23), characterizes the police officers’ handling of George Floyd in the spring of 2020 as being “completely decent” (9/29/20), and approves video content on his website that encourages parents to “reject” their transgender children’s gender identities (“Why Girls Become Boys”). 

There is no place in New Hampshire’s public schools for the use of PragerU videos, or any other PragerU materials. We call on the members of the State Board of Education to unanimously reject the approval of its online financial literacy course as part of the state’s Learn Everywhere program. 

1  State Board Tables PragueU Financial Literacy Course 

2 PragerU 2023 Biannual Report 

3 The Dennis Prager Show