DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Detroit Public Schools Community District is considering renewing a $571,941 contract for Newsela, a controversial digital platform that conservative groups says promotes a liberal agenda.

What is Newsela?

Newsela reproduces news stories that are read by students and assigned by teachers. The controversy is the sources that Newsela uses are traditional media that many media trackers say have a left-leaning bias. As of 2021, Newsela had 37 million registered students and was in 90% of all U.S. high schools.

What are Newsela’s sources?

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Some of the sources used by Newsela include The Washington Post, USA Today, PBS and the Associated Press.

“Are Your Kids Getting a Daily Dose of News Propaganda with Their Common Core?” was a 2016 headline on a story written about Newsela by the conservative PJ Media.

“But when Newsela chooses articles with an ideological flavor, that flavor is distinctly progressive,” the 2016 PJ Media story stated. “It abounds with articles that sound the alarm on global warming, pollution, or animal extinction.”

One story Newsela promotes on its website was written by The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Picture book gives children insight into Black Lives Matter” was the headline for the story written by The Sydney Morning Herald

The newspaper quoted Maxine Beneba Clark, an author of a children’s book about Black Lives Matter, as saying she wanted to show that BLM “also means joy, it means we support each other, and we fight for what’s right – the positives that come out of that type of community movement.”