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The U.S. Senate has voted to pass an amendment in the $3.5 billion budget reconciliation passage that prohibits federal funds from being used to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools.
The resolution was approved nearly along party lines early Wednesday, setting the stage for the Democrats to craft an economic package in the coming weeks. Senator Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) amendment dubbed the Stop CRT Act was part of the resolution. The amendment passed 50-49, with all Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voting in favor and the rest of the Democrats voting against.
In a July 14 press release, Cotton explained the legislation would bar federal funds from being sent to preschools, and also K-12 schools that promote CRT.
Cotton stressed:
Critical Race Theory teaches people to obsess over race and to believe that America is an evil, oppressive place. Federal funds should not be used to support activists in schools who want to teach our kids to hate each other and their country.
Prior to the voting, Cotton addressed the chamber saying that he, like many other Americans, grew up being taught America is a great and noble nation because it is “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” and because “in America, our rights have no color, our law and society should be color blind.” Cotton then quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed people should be judged not by color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Sadly, Cotton continued, some are trying to replace the founding principles of the nation with CRT, an “un-American” ideology that “indoctrinates” children that “America is a racist nation,” and teaches them to “hate America.” The senator argued the taxpayer dollars should not support it. In conclusion, Cotton stated the future depends on the children that love America and love each other “as fellow citizens, no matter their race.”
Leftist outlet Education Week explains that CRT is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old and emerged out of postmodernist thought, “which tends to be skeptical of the idea of universal values, objective knowledge, individual merit, Enlightenment rationalism, and liberalism — tenets that conservatives tend to hold dear.” The core idea of CRT is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. It also noted that “the theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people — white or nonwhite — who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism.”
CRT has been adopted in many public schools. The Washington Examiner has reported on some of the worst instances of CRT teaching in schools. For example, at the Grace Church High School in New York City, students are asked to no longer refer to their parents as “mom and dad” since those terms are not “including and welcoming,” and perpetuate racism and hate. In Philadelphia, a fifth-grade social-studies lesson asked students to celebrate the “black communist” Angela Davis. The Oregon Department of Education even adopted CRT into mathematics, implying that math is not a “culturally and politically neutral subject,” and “all levels of teaching mathematics are imbued with the same racism and violence that permeates all schooling.”
The National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest teachers’ union representing three million educators, has committed itself to incorporating CRT in grades K-12. In July, the union’s assembly, which was attended by 8,000 educators and featured President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, as speakers, adopted New Business Item 39. The new item will “share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT).”
CRT “examines” how (according to the union) racism pervades every single aspect of society, and disadvantages non-white people. Since CRT has been exposed for the racist, Marxist, and divisive indoctrination program that it is (for example, see here, here and here), the NEA wants to clarify “what it [CRT] is and what it is not” and “have a team of staffers for members who want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric.”
America’s second-largest teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers (ATF), also supports teaching CRT. During its virtual conference, held also in July, the union announced its intention to defy any CRT bans in primary-education curricula. Randi Weingarten, AFT’s president, vowed to use the union’s resources to defend teachers who defy a state ban on teaching CRT.
As of late June, it’s been reported that at least six states — Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas — have passed bills purporting to ban concepts associated with CRT in K-12 education. Legislatures in at least 18 more — Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have either introduced legislature targeting CRT, or are considering similar legislation, according to NBC News.
