Garbarino proposes federal mandate for 9/11 school curriculum

Representative Andrew Garbarino is proposing federal legislation to mandate 9/11 curriculum in all 50 states. The move follows a University of Wisconsin study indicating that only Arizona and Florida currently require the September 11 attacks to be taught in public schools, while ten other states only encourage it through loose guidelines or moments of silence.

In the absence of national mandates, some states have adopted lesson plans such as ‘Teaching Beyond September 11th,’ developed by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Critics, including the North America Values Institute, argue these materials downplay the terrorist nature of the attacks and shift the focus toward themes like ‘Islamophobia and the Oval Office’ and ‘Right-Wing Extremism.’

The curriculum in question devotes a single paragraph to the attacks and does not use the term ‘terrorists’ to describe the hijackers. Additionally, a study noted that two-thirds of Middle East studies professors believe many college students are unable to identify who attacked the U.S. on September 11 or the motivations behind the event.