Ye Olde Witch Hunt Tactic Makes a Comeback in Right-Wing War on Public Education

Remember the Salem witch trials? Seems like a historical event worth teaching, but what do I know? (art by Maggie Q. Thompson / Public Domain)

Witches! Just when you think the concept has lost its unifying power for our society's most conservative factions, it comes back around.

Right-wing news outlet/propaganda mill Texas Scorecard is trying its hand at the classic application of the "common enemy" effect, with the apparent goal of getting college courses that mention witchcraft canceled. A June 20 Scorecard headline alerted readers that, "Texas Universities Fund Courses on Witches and Black Magic," spotlighting Texas Tech University's course, Witches, Bruxas, & Black Magic.

Two days later, Scorecard reported that the class had been canceled after public backlash, writing that Texas Tech "confirmed to Texas Scorecard that the university will no longer be offering the course, following criticism." And it seems that is sort of what happened. A spokesperson for the university told the Chronicle that the course was low-enrolled with only four students registered and, as a result, was on track to be canceled this week. "Given the attention surrounding the course, the decision was made to move up the cancellation," the spokesperson told us.

In reporting that the course was canceled, Texas Scorecard left out the enrollment issue and then directed its readers' attention to the History of Witchcraft course offered at UT-Austin. So do we need to be looking out for canceled witchy classes at UT?

First, a quick digression, to examine why Texas Scorecard should care. These courses are not in any way strange or suspicious, whether they focus on the ostracization of women, the violence and death toll of witch hunts, or religious beliefs. UT offers history courses covering a variety of religions, a whole slew of courses that focus on violence in history (wars, slavery, etc.), and dozens of women's and gender studies courses, which all discuss gender in society.

But Texas Scorecard has a distinct anti-public education agenda to serve. As reporter Brant Bingamon gracefully lays out in this week's feature on book banning, right-wing political forces in Texas have long been vying to eliminate public education altogether. Texas Scorecard is a propaganda arm of that movement.

Stick with me for a minute as we follow the money: Texas Scorecard spun off from the tea party-aligned lobbying group Empower Texans. The Empower Texans PAC was, in turn, funded with millions of dollars given by billionaire Texas oil magnate Tim Dunn (a Texas Tech alum!). Dunn vice-chairs the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a group that has dedicated decades to destabilizing public education. Most recently, a TPPF campaign director stood beside Gov. Greg Abbott as he signed the book-banning bill House Bill 900, but TPPF has also authored and fought for bills that would redirect public school funding to pay for private school tuition. One of the six prongs of TPPF's public education priorities, unveiled in 2019, included eliminating school property tax, which provides the majority of Texas public schools' funding. (And, wouldn't you know, eliminating that tax is the reason Abbott called another special session this week. See how these dots connect in the Chronicle's pages today?)

So, back to UT. As it turns out, the His­tory of Witchcraft course Texas Scorecard is worried about hasn't been offered in close to a decade. Retired professor Brian Levack, who taught the class, said it did get some flack in the early 1970s "in the editorial pages of the Austin American-Statesman as well as from the local clergy," though those fears were assuaged when Levack made it clear that the course was on the history of witchcraft prosecutions, and not a how-to workshop on spellcasting. "I do wonder, however, whether my course might be treated the same way as the one at Texas Tech in today's climate of opinion," Levack told the Chronicle. "I'm willing to bet that if I offered the course in Florida, it too would be canceled, probably because my sympathy for the 100,000 victims of the great witch hunt – most of them women – would be considered 'woke.'"

UT does offer several courses dealing with witches. Witches, Workers, and Wives covers early modern European history, with special attention to the transition to capitalism and the Catholic and Protestant Reformations, for example. But the History Department hasn't experienced pressure to cancel them, per a spokesperson for UT's College of Liberal Arts.