Alaska’s education department is actively training classroom teachers to serve as left-wing cultural evangelists, pushing controversial beliefs about race, gender and identity on K-12th-grade students, before enlisting them as young activists.

Highlighted in a new report from the national watchdog group, Defending Education, Alaska’s embrace of this ideology is part of a wider, national movement spearheaded by groups like the hard-left nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

This organization promotes its “Learning for Justice” program, which seeks to integrate divisive content and materials into K-12 schools nationwide by offering a range of lessons, tools and other materials for teachers to incorporate into their classroom instruction. The SPLC program talks about the need for students to become activists who can politically advance notions about critical race theory, gender ideology, queer dogma, white privilege and historic victimhood.

Alaska teachers are trained to view traditional education through a lens of “unconscious bias,” incorporating tools like the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to unearth supposed hidden prejudices.

Defending Education’s 2026 report notes that SPLC’s Learning for Justice program is radically reshaping teacher training, classroom lessons and curriculum. It is also seamlessly woven into social-emotional learning (SEL), social justice standards and so-called antiracism and equity policies across the nation.

Alaska Department of Education is listed in the Defending Education report for its role in promoting and disseminating these ideas. Although SPLC’s programming is not explicitly mentioned in the Alaska material, the report highlights that Alaska’s new social studies curriculum is rife with SPLC-type content. Alaska’s January 2026 professional development module titled, “Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning,” urges teachers to embed activism into K-12 social studies classes across the state.

The social studies document instructs Alaska educators to employ critical race theory doctrine and to recognize so-called systemic and unconcious racism, while promoting “justice-oriented” citizenship that enlists students to become activists.

The module trains teachers to view traditional education through a lens of “unconscious bias,” incorporating tools like the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to unearth supposed hidden prejudices. It frames culture via “rings” encompassing gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, while validating “queer theory” and elements and various sexual identities under the guise of “affirming” student differences and “identities.”

Alaska educators are then directed to focus on “marginalized perspectives,” while crafting instruction around “counter-narratives,” social class struggle and the “root causes” of perceived injustices.

At one point, the document instructs teachers showcase efforts by “corporate mainstream media” to advance the causes of equity and inclusion.

According to Defending Education’s report, the true scope of SPLC’s influence on public education is difficult to fully measure due to a lack of public access to curricula, lessons, and textbooks at the district and school levels. Another complication is the fact that teachers can independently weave controversial content into daily lessons and assignments, with no real paper trail.

“Therefore, it is fair to assume that the use of Learning for Justice content is more widespread throughout K-12 education than this report is able to capture,” the report concludes.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here read the Alaska Education Department’s guidance for teachers.

— Click here to contact the Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop.

Click here to support the Alaska Watchman.