Trump Taking a Page Out of Putin’s Playbook? Educational Proposals Echo Russian Reforms
© AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to reshuffle the US school system to stamp out "wokeness" – neo-liberal ideas including those concerning race and gender, advocated by "radical left maniacs."
Trump proposes cutting federal funding for schools and programs promoting "critical race theory" (CRT). According to the GOP, modern CRT studies are biased against white and Asian people, statehood and law.
Trump vows to crackdown on "transgender insanity" at schools which were pressured to adopt new Title IX regulations on students’ gender identity under the risk of losing federal funding under Joe Biden. The rules include providing access to female lockers and bathrooms for biological males self-identifying as "girls" and allowing transgender athletes to participate in school sports "matching their identity".
Trump also plans to subject "accreditation agencies" to scrutiny over "wokeism", and provide alternatives for educational institutions.
He also looks to shut the federal Department of Education, slammed by conservatives as a hotbed of "wokeism".
US conservatives are not the only force fighting against neoliberal ideas.
In November 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to strengthen the traditional spiritual and moral values in Russia's social life, whereas in December 2023 he inked a law reinforcing traditional values in the Russian "sovereign education system."
Upbringing and educating children in line with traditional values are considered a necessary condition for forming national identity and protecting Russia's sovereignty. From September, children will receive courses on family studies and the defense of the Homeland.
The laws denounce neoliberal ideas, including gender issues and the LGBT+* agenda peddled by the Western elites, as being destructive.
*banned for extremism in Russia
