Stafford County Board of Supervisors Denounces Critical Race Theory

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted six to zero with one absent to pass a resolution denouncing the use of Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and requiring students to identify preferred pronouns. The resolution also warns that the BOS will review all school board appropriation requests and block any that fund those items.

“BE IT RESOLVED by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors on this the 21st day of September, 2021, that it be and hereby does denounce the teaching of the 1619 Project and critical race theory (CRT) and related principles in Stafford County Public Schools; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board does not support students of Stafford County Public Schools being required to identify their chosen pronouns,” the resolution as passed states.

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New Poll Shows Virginia Gubernatorial Race in a ‘Dead Heat’

A new poll announced Thursday has Virginia’s gubernatorial race in a statistical tie, with early voting beginning Friday. According to an Emerson College poll commissioned by WRIC, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has the support of 49 percent of likely voters while GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin has 45 percent. That’s within the margin of error: plus or minus 3.4 percent.

“Statistically speaking, the poll isn’t telling you that McAuliffe is going to win or Youngkin is going to lose. It is really saying it is a dead heat,” Emerson College Polling Director Spencer Kimball told WRIC.

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Youngkin and McAuliffe Meet for First of Two Debates

One day before early voting begins, GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin and Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe faced off for the first time in a debate at the Appalachian School of Law in southwestern Virginia Thursday. Moderators asked candidates about policies including abortion, Critical Race Theory (CRT), right to work, qualified immunity, vaccine mandates, and Confederate monuments. Youngkin repeatedly tried to link policy issues to McAuliffe’s past record, while McAuliffe repeatedly tried to tie Youngkin to former President Trump. Both candidates also committed to accepting the result of the election if certified by the state.

Moderators asked McAuliffe he would sign laws that legalize third trimester abortions even without currently-required approval of three doctors in Virginia.

“If they came up with a solution, and the woman’s life has to be in danger, it has to be certified, and if you had a legitimate doctor that says, ‘This woman, her life’s in danger,’ of course I would support that,” McAuliffe said.

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Commentary: Breaking Up America

I never thought I’d be writing about secession or anything close. Not in a million years. “America, the Beautiful” is my favorite national song, bringing tears to my eyes with its “sea to shining sea.” Giving up the magnificence that entails would be heartbreaking on so many levels.

But the times being what they are and the man occupying the presidency being who he is, not to mention those surrounding him being who they are, plus the issues that divide us from national defense to education to immigration to race to public safety to the pandemic to values in general being so intractable, I feel compelled to discuss secession or division as if they were a real possibility worth considering.

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Arizona Mayors Hide When It Comes to U.S. Conference of Mayors Supporting Critical Race Theory

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) adopted a resolution at their 89th annual meeting last month encouraging the implementation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools. However, when asked how they felt about it by The Arizona Sun Times, most of Arizona’s mayors who were asked ducked the question. Not one Arizona mayor — mayors of cities with more than 30,000 people are eligible to be members — voted against it. Mesa Mayor John Giles is a trustee with UCSM.

Prescott Mayor Greg Mengarelli told The Arizona Sun Times he had no comment because he is not a member of UCSM. A staffer from Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega’s office said they would attempt to see if he had a response but were very busy.

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Michigan Cities Won’t Say Whether They’ll Adopt Critical Race Theory Resolution

After the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution in favor of teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) last week, the mayors of Michigan’s largest cities won’t say whether they support the resolution. 

The Conference of Mayors defines CRT as a “malleable practice [that] critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers and recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality and gender identity.”

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Savannah Mayor Johnson Supports Teaching Critical Race Theory; Georgia’s Other Big-City Mayors Mum on Mayors’ Conference Resolution

Savannah, GA Mayor Van R. Johnson II

In the wake of the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopting a resolution backing the use of critical race theory (CRT) in public schools, Savannah, GA Mayor Van R. Johnson II (D) has affirmed his support for the measure.

The mayors of Georgia’s four other largest cities have yet to declare their stand on the issue.

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Mayors of Tennessee’s Largest Cities Refuse to Say Whether They Support Critical Race Theory in K-12 Public Schools

The mayors of Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and Knoxville declined to say Monday whether they support public schools teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). This, even though those four mayors — Jim Cooper, Jim Strickland, Tim Kelly, and Indya Kincannon — belong to the United States Conference of Mayors, which recently adopted a resolution supporting CRT in K-12 public schools.

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Names of Four Mayors Removed from Controversial Resolution Pushing Critical Race Theory in Public Schools After Document Exposed

The mayors of four major cities seemed to back away from sponsoring a resolution supporting Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public K-12 schools after their support for the deeply unpopular ideology was made public on social media.

The resolution, which was adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, initially listed the following four mayoral sponsors: Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer; Boise, Idaho, Mayor Lauren McLean; Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot; and Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler.

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Republican Party of Virginia Chair Rich Anderson Says Biden Could Learn from Virginia’s Non-Partisan Handling of Military Issues

President Joe Biden has asked several Trump appointees to resign from military advisory boards, triggering anger from conservatives who say the move breaks norms.

“Typically, military advisory boards by tradition have been exempted from undue partisan influence. On non-military boards, it is generally accepted that new presidential administrations do changes, but avoid doing it to any depth for military boards,” Republican Party of Virginia Chair Rich Anderson told The Virginia Star.”This recent development is a continuation of the Biden administration practice of politicizing any and every element of American life, in and out of government.”

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Ben Carson, Youngkin, and Sears Criticize Virginia Education Policy at Loudoun County Rally

Secretary Ben Carson

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson spoke against mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, and COVID-19 vaccines for children in a Loudoun County appearance alongside GOP candidates Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears on Wednesday night. A large, energetic crowd filled a conference room; the event was hosted by Fight for Schools and 1776 Action.

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Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Her Privately Funded School Program Won’t Teach Critical Race Theory

The New York Times’ 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones said her free after-school literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, will teach black history, not critical race theory (CRT), the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported.

The privately-funded “1619 Freedom School” headed by Hannah-Jones will be for students in the Waterloo Community School District in Iowa. The program’s goal is to “improve literacy skills and develop a love for reading through liberating instruction centered on Black American history,” according to the 1619 Freedom School website.

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North Carolina Senate Votes to Ban Critical Race Theory Concepts in Schools

The North Carolina Senate has approved legislation that prohibits K-12 schools from promoting more than a dozen concepts about racism and discrimination.

The legislation bans school districts from pushing critical race theory, which is centered around the idea that race is a social construct used to oppress people of color. The theory, developed by legal scholars in the late 1970s and 1980s, concludes racism in America is systemic.

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Commentary: Left-Wing Teachers Still Can’t Decide If They Do or Do Not Teach ‘Critical Race Theory’

What is the deal with today’s K-12 teachers? They’re all over the place when it comes to Critical Race Theory, or CRT. On the one hand they vehemently deny even teaching it; on the other they defend its use in curricula.

Many of those in the latter group claim they just want to teach a “real” and “inclusive” history. They also assert that in these “real” and “inclusive” lessons, white people aren’t shamed and demonized.

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University of Georgia Professor Bettina Love Tasks ‘Co-Conspirators’ to Not to ‘Spirit Murder’ Minority Students

Bettina L. Love may not have the same public profile of Ibram X. Kendi or Robin DiAngelo, but she is still an active and influential voice among Critical Race Theory and anti-racism scholars.

A professor at the University of Georgia and founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, Love promotes Critical Race Theory across the country in children’s schools.

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Air Force Academy Forces Students to Watch Pro-BLM Video

The newest class of cadets at the United States Air Force Academy, as part of their education, are being forced to watch a video that is supportive of the far-left domestic terrorist organization Black Lives Matter, Fox News reports.

The video in question portrays a fictional situation where a mixed-race student named Jose, who has a Nigerian mother and a Mexican father, is pressured into attending a Black Lives Matter rally on his campus by two of his friends. A third friend tries to convince him to not go, instead suggesting that “all lives matter” is a better slogan, since “black lives matter” would suggest to Jose that his mother’s life matters more than his father’s.

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Census, Fed Data on Minorities Challenge Critical Race Theory Narratives of White Suppression

Minorities have increased their mobility and financial standing over the last decade, according to federal data that challenges some of the narratives of the so-called Critical Race Theory spreading through schools and media.

While the Federal Reserve reports that “the typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family” it also acknowledges that African-American and Hispanic families have made significant gains.

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Dr. Carol Swain Hosts Book Signing for New Book About Critical Race Theory

Former Vanderbilt professor, Dr. Carol Swain, is hosting a book signing after the release of her new book about Critical Race Theory. Her new book, Black Eye for America, How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, is an Amazon best seller. At the signing, she will be giving a presentation on Critical Race Theory as well as signing new books and taking questions from attendees. The signing will be held at “Brentwood’s iconic Puffy Muffin Bakery and Restaurant this Saturday, August 21st at 3pm,” according to a press release.

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Commentary: Leave Our Kids Alone

In Alan Parker’s 1982 film, “Pink Floyd—The Wall,” a young boy’s reality turns into a nightmare. It’s post-war England, and the boy—now in his teens and fatherless—sits in a classroom tuning out his bland math lesson and composing poems instead. The teacher—a pedagogical sadist—mocks the boy, and then proceeds to mete out some good, old-fashioned corporal punishment. The boy winces, and overwhelmed with anxiety begins to see his world as an unbearable nightmare of human oppression.

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Commentary: The Woke Road to Kabul

If stagflation, rising urban crime, and a weak Democratic president did not remind us enough of the 1970s, we now have our very own fall of Saigon.

To the astonishment of many naïve observers, especially those among the polite and orderly caretakers of America’s decline (for whom I suggest the acronym “POCAD”) now so foul misplaced atop our discredited foreign policy establishment, Afghanistan’s Taliban shrewdly—and predictably—waited until U.S. forces had nearly completed their withdrawal from the country before launching a massive offensive that has conquered almost all before it.

Outside Kabul’s precariously held airport, the capital has fallen. Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani fled the country and was within a matter of hours replaced by a Taliban mullah. U.S. diplomats destroyed the secret papers (and, reportedly, images of the American flag) while pusillanimously begging the new regime not to attack the embassy, over which the colors no longer fly. Taliban fighters are joyfully lounging in captured bases where they have won huge caches of American military hardware for use against their doomed countrymen, or to supply whatever other terrorist groups take refuge with them.

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Commentary: The One Hundred Year Road to Critical Race Theory

While critical race theory has rightfully garnered much attention of late, it is simply the latest step in advancing what is known as cultural Marxism. Many people lay the origins of America’s left turn to the 1960s, but in fact, it actually dates back to the Progressive Era, a time of social and political reform that started over a hundred years ago. While eliminating some government corruption and granting suffrage for women were positive steps, the early 20th century movement ushered in an era of radical thought that has never left us. What follows are a few stand-out points of the far-left’s invasion into education.

“The purpose of a university should be to make a son as unlike his father as possible.” These radical words were uttered in 1909 by Woodrow Wilson as president of Princeton, four years before he became the 28th president of the U.S. (When Wilson won his election in 2012, socialist Eugene Debs received 6 percent of the vote.)

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Senate Passes Amendment to Ban Federal Dollars from Funding Critical Race Theory in Schools

The Senate has approved an amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that will ban the use of federal funds from being used to teach Critical Race Theory in schools.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.

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Commentary: As Race ‘Equity’ Advances in Health Care, Signs of a Chilling Effect on Dissent

by John Murawski   The national movement to eradicate what activists call systemic racism and white privilege from medicine and health care has few public critics in the medical profession. A possible reason: Skeptics who have questioned these efforts have been subject to harsh Twitter campaigns, professional demotions and other blowback. A podcast of the Journal of the American Medical Association caused a furor this year when one of its editors suggested that discussion of systemic racism is an unfortunate distraction that should be taken off the table. In response to a protest petition, the AMA launched an internal investigation into the creation of the podcast (and a since deleted Tweet that promoted it). Eventually, the Journal’s top two editors, who are both white, resigned – the editor-in-chief’s departure coming after he issued a public apology in which he affirmed the existence of structural racism in the United States and in the health care field. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Healthcare System removed gynecologist Tara Gustilo, of Filipino descent, from her position as chair of the OB/GYN department after members of her department questioned her “ability to lead.” The demotion followed her series of Facebook posts criticizing critical race theory, Black Lives Matter and “How to Be an Antiracist”…

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Michigan School Charged Parents $400,000 for FOIA Compliance in CRT Battle

A group of Michigan parents was asked to fork over approximately $400,000 by the Forest Hills Public Schools before the district would comply with a Freedom of Information Act request they had submitted. The district later lowered the cost to about $2,200.

The FOIA was sent to FHPS on May 11. The request sought “any and all writings” that used such words as equity, diversity and inclusion.

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Carol Swain Suspects Her New Book on Critical Race Theory Prompted Backlash from American Express

Former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain said Thursday she suspects her new book that tackles Critical Race Theory (CRT) has attracted the notice of the credit card company American Express, which reportedly leans left. Swain said it’s possible that company officials penalized her because of Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, which she co-authored. Amazon made the book available this month.

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Williamson County Parent and Talk Show Host Clay Travis Describes the ‘Mom-Led Revolution’ With Tucker Carlson

Clay Travis

Fox News host Tucker Carlson welcomed Williamson County, Tennessee parent and co-host Clay Travis of The Clay Travis and Bux Sexton Show Thursday morning regarding the outpouring of parental concern as local school boards push anti-American curriculum on elementary students. Travis stated that this was a “mom-led revolution” and hinted that it will grow with speed around the country.

Carlson: The speech that you gave and God bless you for doing it. And it was entirely fact-based. The reaction from the other people in the room really struck me. What is your sense of where parents are right now with what’s happening in schools?

Travis: First, Tucker, thanks for having me.

Carlson: Of course.

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Commentary: American Armageddon

Americans are growing angrier by the day in a way different from prior sagebrush revolts such as the 1960s Silent Majority or Tea Party furor of over a decade ago.

The rage at the current status quo this time is not just fueled by conservatives. For the first time in their lives, all Americans of all classes and races are starting to fear a self-created apocalypse that threatens their families’ safety and the American way of life.

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Commentary: Medicine’s Getting Major Injections of Woke Ideology

The national racial reckoning over reparations and Critical Race Theory is taking over the world of medicine and health care. Prestigious medical journals, top medical schools and elite medical centers are adopting the language of social justice activism and vowing to confront “systemic racism,” dismantle “structural violence” and disrupt “white supremacy” in their institutional cultures.

Some activist physicians describe the present-day health care system with such ominous terms as a “medical caste system” or “medical apartheid,” the latter locution taken from the title of a 2007 book about America’s history of medical experimentation on enslaved blacks and freedmen.

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Loudoun County Teacher Resigns in Protest at School Board Meeting

Laura Morris

A Loudoun County teacher resigned in protest Tuesday night after telling the School Board that its rules promoting transgender ideologies did not comport with her Christian faith. 

“School Board, I quit. I quit your policies, I quit your trainings, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly-politicized agendas on our most vulnerable constituents – the children,” a teacher who identified herself as Laura Morris said, fighting back tears. “I will find employment elsewhere. I encourage all parents and staff in this county to flood the private schools.”

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Memo Reveals University of North Carolina Plan to Sideline ‘Diversity of Thought’ Ahead of Nikole Hannah-Jones Appointment

Nikole Hannah Jones

A memo obtained by Campus Reform reveals that the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media considered “diversity of thought” to be in conflict with its efforts to achieve social justice objectives.

Hussman Dean Susan King wrote the August 1, 2020 memo to university Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. She stated, “There is a fundamental conflict between efforts to promote racial equity and understandings of structural racism, and efforts to promote diversity of thought. These two things cannot sit side by side without coming into conflict.”

King wrote the memo in anticipation of Nikole Hannah-Jones joining the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty and teaching a class based on the “1619 Project.” 

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Commentary: School Choice Is Not Enough

Young girl wearing black headphones, smiling

If there is a public policy silver lining to this past year, it is the increased support for school choice. Most public schools went online during lockdowns and parents, dissatisfied with the results, sought out other solutions, including private schools, pods, charter schools, online learning, and homeschooling. The last more than doubled with 11.1 percent of households homeschooling, up from 5.4 percent the year before.

Many state legislatures improved school choice options in their states. This is to be celebrated and continued.

School choice by itself, however, will not save students from a failing education if charter and private schools adopt the same curriculum and practices as the most woke schools. Without a focus on the right subjects and lessons, students will be unprepared for personal or professional success. 

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Aspects of Tennessee’s New ‘Anti-Critical Race Theory’ Law Worry Some

A Spring Hill woman who says she helped craft a new state law that limits teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools said she objects to certain guidelines state officials have proposed on the matter. Tricia Stickel told The Tennessee Star Sunday that she is not an activist. Instead she describes herself as “an effectivist” — someone she said is effective at making positive changes.

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Michigan University Among Universities Training Future Teachers to Push Critical Race Theory and Social Justice

School bus with "use your voice" on the windshield

As the controversy over Critical Race Theory rages across the country, several prominent teacher preparation programs are training future teachers to use Critical Race Theory in the classroom.  Several of the nation’s largest teacher preparation programs are training future teachers to use Critical Race Theory in the classroom.

Campus Reform reviewed course descriptions for upcoming classes in college teacher training programs at several major universities. Many intentionally prepare students to use progressive ideology in their own classrooms. Several use Critical Race Theory and social justice as a starting point for learning how to teach.

Among those courses are the University of North Carolina education department’s class, “”Critical Race Theory: History, Research, and Practice.” The course will cover how Critical Race Theory connects to “LatCrit Theory, AsianCrit, QueerCrit, TribalCrit, and Critical Race Feminism,” those terms being more recent areas of study that draw heavily from Critical Race Theory.

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Tennessee Attorney General Fails to Join Lawsuit Against ‘Critical Race Theory’

Attorney General Herb Slatery

Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery has failed to join several other attorneys general in a lawsuit against Critical Race Theory (CRT).

JustTheNews.com reported this week that attorneys general in more than half of the 50 states disagree on how to address alleged racial disparities in school discipline. Both sides filed competing briefs through a U.S. Department of Education proceeding that reportedly attracted 2,700 comments.

The website reported that Arizona “led a coalition of 15 states to oppose the reinstatement of the Obama administration’s “disparate impact” guidance, which said statistical differences between the races in school discipline could serve as the basis for a federal civil rights investigation.”

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Virginia County Tells Second-Graders They Should Feel Safe with No Police

It has been revealed that the Fairfax County Public School district (FCPS) is encouraging second-graders to be anti-police, with a “Summer Learning Guide” that includes the phrase “I feel safe when there are no police,” according to an exclusive report by Breitbart.

The stunningly radical content was revealed by a document leaked to the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education (PDE). Fairfax is the most populous school district in the state of Virginia, and has widely been viewed as the epicenter of the battle over “Critical Race Theory” – the notion that all White people are automatically racist, and that America is a fundamentally racist nation – and other far-left ideas with which children are being indoctrinated.

The summer curriculum requires students to watch a far-left YouTube channel called “Woke Kindergarten,” and one video in particular called “Safe by Ki.” The video says, in part: “I feel safe when there are no police. And it’s no one’s job to tell me how I feel. But it’s everyone’s job to make sure that people who are being treated unfairly…feel safe too.” The “lesson” ends with several loaded questions, including “Why do some people feel safe with police and others don’t,” as well as “What can you do to make sure other people feel safe?”

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Commentary: School Board Elections and the Impact on Critical Race Theory in America

Protestor with megaphone, talking

Over the last few months, the U.S. has engaged in intense discussion over “critical race theory.” As Americans have debated the impact of CRT, several states have banned CRT from the public school curriculum, while other states are using it as part of that curriculum. The debate over CRT’s merits or dangers has prompted ideological battles in school board elections. This article looks at the increased activism around school board elections and its broader ramifications.

Past politicization of school board elections

Though school board elections may not seem as exciting as a presidential or even congressional race, they have taken on greater importance in recent years. In 2005, the city of Dover, Pennsylvania faced a contentious court case known as Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which ruled that the school district’s teaching of intelligent design violated the separation of church and state. Shortly after the trial concluded, the district held its school board elections, and all the school board members who favored the teaching of intelligent design lost their reelection bids, at least in part due to their position on the issue. The election generated much discussion.

In the early 2010s, school board races saw partisan involvement through the Tea Party movement. Generally, candidates affiliated with the Tea Party ran on platforms of greater political accountability and lower property taxes. Carl Paladino, a former Republican nominee for governor in New York, won a race for the Buffalo school board on a Tea Party-type platform. The school board later ousted Paladino for making offensive comments about former First Lady Michelle Obama.

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Some School Administrators in Minnesota Required to Take Critical Race Theory Training

Muhammad Khalifa

School administrators from seven Minnesota districts are being required to take critical race theory training, as was reported by Child Protection League. The course is taught by Muhammad Khalifa, through his leadership institute. According to Julie Quist, the Board Chair for Child Protection League, an administrative staff from one of the districts who wishes to remain anonymous shared handouts from the required sessions.

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Rhode Island Teachers Unions Sue Mom to Stop Release of Critical Race Theory Lessons

The Rhode Island mother who turned to public records law to learn what the school district was teaching her daughter is now a defendant in a lawsuit by the state and local teachers union.

The Rhode Island and South Kingstown chapters of the National Education Association sued Nicole Solas and the school district this week to stop the latter from releasing records sought by Solas, including curriculum and policies related to critical race theory, antiracism, gender theory and children’s sexuality.

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Federal Judge Rules Implementing Critical Race Theory Violates Civil Rights Law

Critical race theory flies in the face of the federal Civil Rights Act by presuming that racial disparities are the result of racial discrimination, a federal appeals court judge wrote in a concurrence.

A black property owner alleged that a Texas navigation district committed racial discrimination by threatening to condemn properties and conspiring with city officials to keep property values low in his neighborhood, so it could acquire them for a channel improvement project. The East End of Freeport was created as a “Negro reservation” and remains majority-minority, though Hispanics heavily outnumber blacks.

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Tennessee Officials Propose Rules on Teaching Critical Race Theory in Public Schools

A new state law that limits teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) has prompted the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to propose new rules as it pertains to teaching on the subject of race in public schools. According to state of Tennessee’s website, educators may not teach that one race is superior to another race. They also cannot teach that an individual is privileged due to race or sex, whether consciously or subconsciously. They also may not teach that the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.

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