Democrats on the State Board of Education rejected an effort to base Colorado civics education on the conservative American Birthright program.

Republican State Board member Debora Scheffel had proposed tossing the civics standards developed by a committee of teachers, community members, and other experts and starting over using American Birthright as a base.

American Birthright is a project of the Civics Alliance, a coalition whose mission statement says it formed to oppose a “new civics” more centered on global citizenship and activism than on understanding American ideals and responsibilities.

“American Birthright teaches about the expansion of American liberty to include all Americans, the contributions that Americans from every walk of life have made to our shared history of liberty, and America’s championship of liberty throughout the world,” the website says. “Students will learn of heroes of liberty such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ronald Reagan.”

Colorado’s social studies standards got a D rating from the Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank. Scheffel, who is dean of the school of education at Colorado Christian University, said American Birthright draws heavily from Massachusetts and Florida social studies standards that get much higher marks.

While Fordham has not rated American Birthright, Scheffel said she encounters many college students who lack basic information about American governance, and she believes the program offers more rigorous content and is more comprehensive than current state standards.

“I just feel that our students are not learning what they need to learn,” Scheffel said.

Colorado is updating its civics standards to comply with a bipartisan 2021 law that called for strengthening students’ understanding of the basic workings of government, as well as how to engage with public officials and in public process. It’s part of a broader social studies standards update occurring amid a polarized national debate about the teaching of history, gender, and race.

Republicans have been successful in changing some aspects of the standards, such as shaping genocide standards to emphasize the dangers of socialism, despite Democrats holding the majority on the board, but on Wednesday, Democrats quickly rejected several Republican amendments to the civics standards.

“These standards are too extreme for the state of Colorado,” said Democratic board member Lisa Escárcega, explaining her vote against the American Birthright standards.

American Birthright calls out project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, social emotional learning, current events, civic engagement, and any teaching that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, or social justice as harmful to learning. Escárcega said she finds that parents value many of these things and wouldn’t want them to go away.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.