 Logo since 2017 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Educational publishing |
| Founded | 1972; 53 years ago (1972) |
| Headquarters | Pensacola, Florida |
Key people | Arlin Horton (founder) |
| Revenue | $1.4 million[2] |
| Parent | Pensacola Christian College |
| Website | www |
Abeka Book, LLC, known asA Beka Book until 2017, is an Americanpublisher affiliated withPensacola Christian College (PCC) that produces K-12curriculum materials that are used byChristian schools andhomeschooling families around the world.[3][4][5] It is named after Rebekah Horton, wife of college presidentArlin Horton. By the 1980s, Abeka andBJU Press (formerly Bob Jones University Press) were the two major publishers of Christian-based educational materials in America.[6] Its books have been criticized for lack of academic rigor and misinformation on scientific and historical subjects.
The company started in 1972 as A Beka Book. In 2017, the company rebranded as Abeka. The Abeka Academy video program is available on DVD and streams online.[citation needed]
Abeka's video program (Abeka Academy) and the Traditional Parent-Directed program are accredited[7] by theMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) and by theFlorida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (FACCS).
Educators have criticized some Abeka textbooks as lackingacademic rigor and taking contrary or reactive positions toward their subject matter. Experts from theUniversity of Florida andUniversity of Central Florida in 2018 criticized the content of Abeka textbooks as being markedly simpler and less challenging than the content of comparable textbooks used in public education.[8]
Abeka history books are dramatically different from mainstream books, especially on matters of race. A section of the high-school textbookUnited States History: Heritage of Freedom is titledBirth of a Nation, evoking the 1915 film of the same name that glorified theKu-Klux-Klan.[9] Other Christian Nationalist rhetoric describes slavery as "black immigration".[10][11]
Abeka takesBiblical literalist andyoung Earth creationist positions in its science curriculum, teaching theGenesis creation narrative as a literal and factual account.[12] An Abeka science book denounces evolution as a "retreat fromscience."[8]
In 2006, theAssociation of Christian Schools International sued theUniversity of California after the university rejected school credits based on books published by Abeka and one similar publisher. In the case ofAssociation of Christian Schools International v. Roman Stearns, a judge upheld the University of California's finding that the books are "inconsistent with the viewpoints and knowledge generally accepted in thescientific community".[13]
Between 1988 and 1996, Abeka Book heldtax exempt status, because its profits were channeled into PCC as a tax-exempt religious organization or educational institution.[14] In January 1995, the U.S.Internal Revenue Service ruled that the college's publishing arm was liable for taxes as a profit-making entity. The IRS further ruled that the profits of the publishing arm benefited the organization as a whole, because both A Beka Book and PCC were run under the same organization and that all of the profits of A Beka Book went directly to PCC, constituting 60% of the college's income.[15] The effect of this ruling rendered the publishing company ineligible for future tax exempt status.
Although PCC was ultimately cleared of any liability for back taxes, PCC paid the estimated $44.5 million, and A Beka Book paid another $3.5 million.[citation needed]
The history content of Abeka textbooks was—and remains—dramatically distinct from mainstream books. One section of the latest edition of the high-school textbook, United States History: Heritage of Freedom, is titled "Birth of a Nation," evoking the infamous 1915 pro-Ku-Klux-Klan film of that name. Moreover, in teaching the aftermath of the Civil War, instead of focusing on the violence that derailed Reconstruction-era governments, the textbook explains that Reconstruction failed because many formerly enslaved people were "not prepared for political responsibility." The book does briefly note that "some Southern whites used illegal methods" and "terror tactics," including forming the KKK. Yet, that mention of white terrorism is buried within an overall message of white victimhood.
The Guardian reviewed dozens of textbooks produced by the Christian textbook publishers Abeka, Bob Jones University Press and Accelerated Christian Education, three of the most popular textbook sources used in private schools throughout the US. These textbooks describe slavery as "black immigration", and say Nelson Mandela helped move South Africa to a system of "radical affirmative action".
The History of the United States in Christian Perspective," a textbook from Abeka, promises students: "You will learn how God blessed America because of the principles (truths) for which America stands." Those truths made America "the greatest nation on the face of the earth," the book says, before issuing a warning: "No nation can remain great without God's blessing.