Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., promised a reckoning for President Biden's woke agenda in the Pentagon that was not only affecting its employees but military-connected children in the education wing in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reported Monday that a Pentagon chief, while representing herself as an employee of Department of Defense Education Activity, recommended teachers include "social justice" books in their classrooms. One of the books included on the list was "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which referred to 9/11 first responders as "not human" and "menaces."
Another book called, "Melissa," is about a fourth-grade transgender girl's journey. Some passages in the book refer to a child's sex organs in crude terms.
"You have service members who are deployed around the world, obviously it is incredibly stressful for those families, for the children, for the spouses and the service member. And… to have this woke ideology being pushed down to the kids is absolutely un-American," Rep. Stefanik, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee as a senior member, told Fox News Digital.
In September, the same diversity, equity and inclusion chief at DoDEA – Kelisa Wing – was put under probe for one month after a Fox News Digital report uncovered her prior tweets about White people.
Wing, who wrote on Twitter that she was "exhausted with these white fox," is involved in influencing curriculum for 66,000 military-connected children in DoDEA's 160 schools across the globe.
"It should not be taking the Pentagon as long to address this," Stefanik said, "and they need to get rid of this woke agenda and get back to focused on their mission, which is making sure that we have the most effective, most ready, most capably trained force in the world."
Stefanik said, "[Wing] co-created children's books that seek to divide children based upon race. The amazing thing about the United States military is it's the great equalizer, and they are moving us in the wrong direction under President Joe Biden and this woke agenda to try to divide service members."
One of Wing's books said, "White privilege hurts a lot of people. If you are White you might feel bad about hurting others, or you might feel afraid to lose this privilege."
"Overcoming White privilege is a job that must start with the White community," it continued. "[W]ill you really feel good at the end of the race when you look back and see others fighting obstacles that you didn't even have?"
Yet, Stefanik believes Wing is merely a symptom of the radical left agenda sweeping through federal agencies under President Biden's direction.
"The Republican Party is the party of parents," Stefanik said, and promised a reckoning.
In June 2021, Biden signed an executive order which "reinvigorate[d]… the approach… first established in the Obama-Biden Administration" and directed all federal agencies to "establish or elevate Chief Diversity Officers," among other priorities. Accordingly, Wing was promoted to diversity chief in December 2021.
"We have a lot of ability to address these issues with the Pentagon. I know we will look at any and all options when it comes to making sure there's accountability and… that the military is not focused or spending any amount of time or taxpayer resources pushing this radical work agenda," she said.
Stefanik was previously sent a video by whistleblower showing DoDEA teachers discussing keeping parents in the dark about their children's gender identity transition inside the classroom.
A teacher said in the video, "Sometimes, the reality is our students can’t come out at home for a variety of reasons, and so we need to make sure we are crystal clear this might be the only place where they can truly be themselves, and use their name, and use their pronouns, but we would never want to put them at risk at home."
As a result of these and other findings, Stefanik proposed an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act which included a Bill of Rights for military parents in Pentagon schools.
She added that the GOP will also be working on a "full parents Bill of Rights, which is part of our Commitment to America that we intend to pass very early on next year in a Republican majority."
Wing said in Sept. 2020 that she was trying to "completely tear down" the system, according to the nonprofit OpenTheBooks.
"I am anti-racist," she said, according to the nonprofit. "[Anti-racist] means I am actively taking a stand to completely tear down, uproot, rebuild, and create something new, and that's exactly what we need to do in education. I know that sounds really revolutionary and hard, but there are a lot of mechanisms and tools out there that can help us get there."
Wing was then asked by an audience member, "As we go through this racial reckoning is it time to really transform education, transform curriculum – is it time for a revolution?"
"Most definitely," she responded, according to the nonprofit.
Stefanik said, "I've been increasingly concerned that under Joe Biden, the Pentagon has been more focused on woke and appeasing the radical left than on making sure that we have the most lethal and effective military on the planet."
