Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, apparently isn’t done taking advantage of the state he’s decided to call home. This time, he’s targeted the Department of Education.
EverBright Media, a company co-founded by Huckabee, is known for publishing alternative history books for kids, with a heavy right-wing bias. These are sold to school districts, often with a built-in automatic renewal plan to keep stocking new editions.
In 2020, EverBright Media got a big contract, though. Through the work of Chad Gallagher, a lobbyist who works for Mike Huckabee, a Republican Senator on the education committee was persuaded to give EverBright a quarter-million dollar contract to provide pamphlets for the state Education Department to distribute to schools.
The pamphlets, titled “The Kids Guide to the Coronavirus,” are not as bad as they could be. They encourage kids to socially distance and to use good hygiene and not hoard supplies. But they discourage mask wearing and downplay COVID-19 as being no worse than the flu. The pamphlets are politically charged as well, praising Donald Trump for Project Warpspeed and the associated vaccines, but don’t actually encourage anyone to get vaccinated.
The contract also includes an “updated” version of the booklet for Arkansas students later this year for another $265,000, which the state has already committed to. In total, those two contracts amount to over half a million dollars.
All of this while the American Psychological Association has been publishing updated kids’ guides to coronavirus for months now–for free. More information can always be found from the CDC’s website, which curates a library of free information aimed at families and children.
EverBright also sells these pamphlets direct to the public, but buying the $1 pamphlet locks individuals into a contract to buy six more $20 issues about the Trump Presidency, the “truth” about the election, and other right-wing topics.
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