CDC linked to progressive plan in schools to replace parents, critics warn

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been linked to a progressive group’s plan to challenge parents as the main moral authority in children’s lives, warns a conservative education group.

No Left Turn in Education (NLTE) is warning that a plan by the School Superintendent’s Association (AASA), called Learning 2025, has many of the same basic principles as the CDC promotes, seeking to replace the parents with the state, according to Fox News.

Learning 2025 is being promoted by AASA as a solution to problems created by the COVID-19 shutdowns, such as plunging test scores and mental health issues.

“I have a problem accepting a program from the very same people that caused the problem,” NLTE’s Chief Research Officer, Apryl Dukes, told Fox News. “That’s what I want parents to know, is that these organizations were part of it, and now they’re offering you a solution to the problem.”

AASA said they have already recruited over 120 schools to participate in the program. 

The problem, Dukes maintains, is that many progressive concepts of equity and social and emotional learning (SEL) are reflected in the both the Learning 2025 plan, as well as CDC plans for implementing systemwide healthcare for children.

The same concepts have sparked controversy and concern in school districts all across the country, with parents protesting against their inclusion in the curriculum of public schools.

“If you put Learning 2025 and the CDC Whole Child model side by side, it is exactly the same,” Holly Terei, NLTE’s National Director of Teacher Coalition, told Fox. “They tweak some of the wording like ‘whole learner’ and ‘whole child.'” 

“It’s kind of like, let’s put lipstick on a pig and call it a lady,” she added. 

AASA, for example, calls Learning 2025 “Student-Centered, Equity-Focused, Future-Driven Education,” that is a “holistic redesign of the public school system.”

The CDC’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) plan also calls itself “student-centered,” and says it will align the “social, and emotional development” of kids with the common goals of the whole community, using schools.  

The language of the two plans, while not exactly the same, is strikingly similar.

And neither plan puts an emphasis on the role that parents play in both the child’s education and their general health.  

The CDC’s plan, for example, has 10 components, the last of which is family engagement.  

“Instead of your child being looked at as an extension of you or belonging to you, they are looked at as an extension of the government and of the government schools,” Terei said.

“This is a total overreach through these public and private partnerships, and it is incredibly concerning.”