“BREAKING: The nation’s largest teachers union has approved a plan to promote critical race theory in all 50 states and 14,000 local school districts. The argument that ‘critical race theory isn’t in K-12 schools’ is officially dead” – Christopher Rufo.
Critical race theory has been implicitly taught in schools for years. However, now the National Education Association has explicitly stated its pro-CRT agenda for schools; its teachers will promote, publicize, and teach CRT to students. Thus, it is paramount that parents know how to identify CRT, articulate its problems, and fight it by being empowered to make their own decisions for their children.
CRT is evasive—there is a large umbrella of terms and phrases associated with it, making identification sometimes difficult without being in the classroom with your child.
See TPPF’s previous article describing the most prominent terms that hint at CRT’s presence in your child’s school. Further, see the nine “divisive concepts” banned by the majority (15 of the 21) of the bills that ban CRT. These concepts encapsulate what critical race theorists believe, and can aid you in finding CRT language in lessons, worksheets, and school websites.
The short-term solution to combat this ideology is to advocate for transparency. Get involved in your school board, and ultimately take legal action if necessary. For example, in both an Illinois and a Virginia school district, people are fighting back against the blatantly unconstitutional grounds of CRT.
In the Illinois case, the plaintiff is a teacher speaking out against the discrimination in her district’s teacher training and classroom instruction. Parents can identify the CRT teaching she speaks against by reading their children’s take-home material and advocating for transparency of curricula to keep schools accountable.
For example, if teachers are required to teach a lesson including the exercise of lining students up based on race and privilege and ask guilting questions, then that lesson should be online for parents to view beforehand.
The Loudon County School Board case in Virginia shows the influence that five parents are having because they started asking questions. By reading the school district’s equity plans on the district website, a parent was able to email an administrator his concerns over discrimination. Then, when the school sent a letter home to parents describing the covert implementation of CRT through “Student Equity Ambassadors,” the parents had a case against the school.
Now, in that district, parents are attending school board meetings, protesting and speaking up for what they want for their children. The lesson here is that parents have power—and can use it.
The long-term solution to fighting CRT begins with parents fighting for the right to choose the best education for their children. Every student deserves equal opportunity, no matter what school attendance zone they live in.
Parents can fight for “backpack funding”—a system in which a child’s public school funding follows him or her to the school of their parents’ choice.
Parents can also advocate for more charter schools, because charter schools are required to be more transparent with curriculum, making CRT teaching more difficult. Moreover, as “The Lottery,” a 2010 documentary film shows, all parents should have the right and ability to choose the right education for their children.
Teachers unions—like the NEA—ultimately should not get to decide what is taught in the classroom.
Parents should be made aware of every decision affecting their children, including those occurring inside the classroom. Learning how CRT disguises itself and advocating for transparency is the first step in fighting against the indoctrination of our children. Fighting the long-term battle begins with ensuring that parents have the power to choose the best education for their children.