Godless Marxism 101: How Howard Zinn Infiltrated Public Schools
A Restoration News investigation reveals the communist intentions of the teachers’ union-aligned Zinn Education Project.
"I've long been inspired by that work of the Communist Party."
That's not a quote from a 1950s Soviet propaganda reel—it's from the editor at the Zinn Education Project, the free curriculum machine quietly feeding "history" lessons into classrooms across America. Restoration News dug into the districts using it, and what we found should alarm every parent, unless you’re a godless Marxist hoping to turn kids into little communists.
It’s the wild west out there when it comes to the history curricula in American classrooms. In today’s world, where physical textbooks are thrown aside for free digital resources, it’s nearly impossible for parents or even school board members to know what is being taught in the classroom. No less than 95 percent of educators admit they have wide discretion over the resources they use.
In 2022, the American Historical Association found that 28 percent of history teachers surveyed admitted to using curriculum related to the pro-communist writer Howard Zinn. Sixty-one percent use the “Teachers Pay Teachers” resource, which distributes curriculum from multiple suppliers, including thousands of items from the Zinn Education Project.
The public is likely not aware of this Godless Marxism dogma infiltrating classrooms across the nation.
The Zinn Education Project
The Zinn Education Project, also known as Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, provides free curriculum to educators across the nation. Howard Zinn, the organization’s namesake, was an avowed Godless Marxist and self-described anarchist. In 1980, Zinn wrote A People’s History of the United States that sold over 2.6 million copies. The book is Zinn’s anti-capitalist take on American history used in classrooms across the nation for decades. Zinn’s book has been referred to as the “least credible history book in print,” “cheap propaganda,” and “the historians’ equivalent of medical malpractice.”
Zinn uses far-left commentary of history as his source of history in his book about history, often without citing his sources. Hardly a factual text that should be used to instruct American children.
Author Mary Graber's book Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America exposes Zinn’s distortion and manipulation of history. Zinn claimed the United States provoked the attack on Pearl Harbor and that Roosevelt was as morally culpable as Hitler for not taking special steps to protect Europe’s Jews.
Graber points out that Zinn wrongly described the native tribes that Christopher Columbus encountered on his voyages as “peaceful feminists, environmentalists, democrats, and communists.” Zinn plagiarized his accounts of Columbus from his friend and fellow activist, Hans Koning, who wrote his own fables portraying Columbus as an evil headhunter rather than a determined explorer and mariner. One of the Zinn Education Project’s endeavors is to abolish Columbus Day.
Graber exposes how Zinn wrongly claimed slavery in Africa was more humane than slavery in the Americas. He also failed to disclose that Africans themselves were selling other Africans as slaves.
Even Zinn’s own biographer, Martin Duberman, noted, “Howard’s version of our past has been justly criticized as leaving out too much, of presenting a partial and thereby distorted account.” Duberman also pointed out that Zinn believed “only members of the working class or minorities (or their champions) are allowed to represent human nobility and selflessness.”
Jesse Hagopian, the Zinn Education Project’s Rethinking Schools Editor, wants to teach Marxist critical race theory in schools and disavows capitalism. He said, “I think the fundamental problem with our education system is . . . that they’re a product of an economic and political structure that is built on profit, racism, oppression, and inequality—namely capitalism.”
It was Hagopian who said, “I’ve long been inspired by that work of the Communist Party.”
The Zinn Education Project’s most recent magazine proves the group's intentions. One of the main articles authored by Hagopian is Don’t Make Students Love America—Teach Them to Question It. Hagopian wrote, “At the semiquincentennial [America's 250th anniversary], the question is this: Will students be forced to love the founders and their vision for the nation, or will they be allowed to consider the evidence and decide for themselves what kind of society they want to build?”
Abolishing the police is another aspiration of the Zinn Education Project—they promote “police free schools.”
The Zinn Education Project is clearly an anti-capitalist group more aligned with the Chinese Communist Party than America.
Examples of Communist Infiltration in America’s Government Schools
Parents need to be aware that this Godless Marxism is infiltrating schools across the nation, in both conservative and far-left districts.
Natalie Bray, running for Virginia Beach school board, posted that “patriotism means framing conversations for my kids about the history of our country.” The post was alongside a photo of her family’s Fourth of July reading list prominently featuring Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States. Voters should firmly reject any school board candidate who peddles Godless Marxism.
Valencia Abbott was the 2025 North Carolina teacher of the year. She bragged about using Zinn books in her classroom in Rockingham County, North Carolina, saying, “I so appreciate Zinn Education Project for allowing me to share my books with my students. When I receive a box of books, not only for my classroom but the ability to get them into the hands of my students, this helps ensure that they are likely to read that.”
2025 North Carolina teacher of the year Valencia Abbott brags about using the Marxist Zinn Education Project books in her classroom. pic.twitter.com/SzePB7k1xV
— Victoria Manning (@HoneyBadger_USA) August 4, 2026
The National Education Association (NEA) and its state level groups are heavily involved with the Zinn Education Project. Newly elected NEA President Princess Moss is a Zinn fan. In a Zinn Education Project webinar, she touted the NEA’s partnership with them and called on teachers to “rise up.”
Two other teachers’ union leaders recently participated in a webinar with the Zinn Education Project’s Rethinking Schools. Andrea Missureli from the Madison, Wisconsin union, celebrated that over 70 percent of teachers refused to attend school on May Day, causing widespread school closures. Teachers then used their paid day off for political activism by marching to the state capital.
Bryan Proffitt, the President of the North Carolina teacher’s union (NCAE), cheered the shutdown of twenty-two school districts in North Carolina on May Day. Proffitt said it was the “launching of a campaign” and not “just a one-off day of action.” He said activist teachers must “grow our presence as the center of life in this country, not just politics, but if our public schools are organized, that creates a different country, that creates a different people even.”
Proffitt said the quiet part out loud—he and his ilk want to transform this nation, through its children, into an anti-capitalist, Godless Marxist country.
Here are a few more government school educators who push the Zinn Education Project curriculum in schools:
Sally Stanhope, High School Social Studies Teacher in Atlanta, GA
De’Ana Forbes, High School History and African American Studies Teacher in Lilburn, Georgia.
Elizabeth Williams Wesley, High School Social Studies Teacher and Director of DEI in Philadelphia, PA.
Freda “Frankie” Anderson, High School Activism and History Teacher in Philadelphia, PA.
Tamara V. Russell, Fourth Grade Math and Science Teacher in Leesburg, FL.
These are just several examples of the tens of thousands of teachers who use Zinn resources across the nation. It’s likely there is a Zinn inspired educator in nearly every school in the nation. In fact, the Zinn Education Project published a map showing the widespread distribution of their curriculum.
This communist indoctrination is a prime example of why states must adopt more education freedom options that allow parents a choice of where their children will attend school. It shouldn’t just be wealthy families who have the option of escaping government schools.
The Zinn Education Group isn’t just a fringe organization operating in the shadows—it's got the backing of teachers' unions, a national platform, and a map to prove its influence. The Zinn Education Group's so-called "history" belongs in the fiction section, not your child's classroom. The only question left is whether parents find out before the government schools brainwash their children into hating America.
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