Bob McDonnell Wanted to Teach Eugenics?!?

Great catch by Chris Guy.

In 2002 Del. Bob McDonnell introduced HR 158: Requesting the Board of Education to incorporate the “American Citizens Handbook” into the public school curricula for grades kindergarten through twelve.

What is the American Citizens Handbook? This is from a book review from the ultra-conservative Eagle Forum:

It contains a rather embarrassing endorsement of eugenics as a goal of education, so that "highly gifted young people" are encouraged to bear children to "greatly improve our national stock."

Wow.

P.S. For more on the eugenics movement in the United States, click here. It's not pretty.

UPDATE: There's more great stuff here, including this gem.

Michael Farris, the home-schooling leader in Virginia, discovered it [the American Citizens Handbook] the mid 1980s. Then the education secretary, William Bennett, used it in a speech. He challenged the NEA to reissue the book, or, if it would not, to permit others to do so. The association responded flummoxed and embarrassed. One spokesman explained, "The world has changed a lot" (ah, and so has the NEA). Another sniffed, "We've got lots of other books if [Bennett] wants to pay for them."

Some years later, Lamar Alexander, running for president, mentioned the Handbook as a "virtual user's guide to America." Mike Farris tells me that he once met the man hired by the NEA to destroy the final 10,000 copies of the book. Had he been asked to burn them? asked Farris. That would be too good to be true-and it was. The man had buried them.

UPDATE #2: The Deeds for Governor blog has more, including an interesting paragraph from the 2/7/02 Virginian-Pilot.

On Wednesday, Del. Robert F. McDonnell's attempts to require students in kindergarten through grade 12 to read the American Citizens Handbook ended in the House Education committee. The Virginia Beach legislator agreed to amend his resolution, HJ158, to state that school districts should teach students about the significance of being an American citizen. McDonnell has been teased about the resolution by fellow delegates. No one, including the National Education Association, could find a copy of the pamphlet. During the meeting, one committee member announced McDonnell's presence by saying he was the one man in the state with a copy.

UPDATE #3: Click here to see the evolution of the bill, including Bob McDonnell's loony idea getting dropped like a patty from the back of a cow. Ha.

UPDATE #4: See the DPVA press release in the comments section.