Soifer

On Thursday the D.C. Council held up the reappointment of a member of the D.C. Public Charter School Board over a two-year-old article he co-authored in which he warned of the threat of “radical multiculturalism” in public schools.

In the article, published by the conservative web publication The Daily Caller, board member Don Soifer—who works at the right-leaning Lexington Institute in Arlington—said that new textbooks were infusing American public education with harmful values:

The expanding use of such textbooks is a dramatic example of the influence of radical multiculturalists over what is taught in public schools around the country. These multiculturalists are espousing a conviction that the teaching of history must be liberated from white Eurocentric or Judeo-Christian “oppressive” perspectives. The resulting distortions can include harmful biases or omissions like those glorifying Islam, coupled with an ignoring or denigrating of fundamental figures or lessons of American history.

The article was raised by Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) and sparked a brief discussion among legislators over whether or not Soifer’s ideology should affect his reappointment to the board. According to the Post, the Charter School Board said in a statement that it strongly backed Soifer reappointment:

The members of the D.C. Public Charter School Board stand firmly in support of Mayor Gray’s renomination of Don Soifer to the Board. Don has a distinguished three-year record of tireless service to the Board and to the 57 charter schools and more than 35,000 students that we serve. He has been a consistent voice on the Board in support of parental choice and quality options for D.C. families, and has in both word and deed been a champion of the diversity of our charter school community. Throughout his term he has distinguished himself as one of the most active and devoted members of the Board – all of whom are volunteers – spending countless hours on the ground inside schools and in community meetings getting to know school leaders and talking with D.C. parents. We wholeheartedly support his re-nomination to the D.C. Public Charter School Board for a second term.

So how did Soifer get on the Charter School Board in the first place? The federal government is responsible for sending the mayor a list of possible appointments, and the mayor has to pick from what he’s offered. D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said the council would take up the reappointment at its next legislative session.