The Biden administration apparently has noticed the parents across the nation who have declared their fierce opposition to public schools teaching their children the Marxist-based Critical Race Theory and revisionist history such at the 1619 Project.
In April, the Department of Education proposed a new regulation under American History and Civics Education programs that would give preference to grant applications for curricula that incorporate the 1619 Project and the ideas of radical “antiracist” scholars such as Ibram X. Kendi.
On Friday, however, when Education Secretary Miguel Cardona opened the invitation to apply for grants under the program, the references to preferred ideas and curriculum were gone, reported PJ Media.
Cardona said the program “has not, does not, and will not dictate or recommend specific curriculum be introduced or taught in classrooms.”
“Those decisions are – and will continue to be – made at the local level.”
The group Parents Defending Education commended the move by Cardona.
“It is our hope that this change in the “proposed priorities” is a sign of the administration’s recommitment to historical accuracy and civics education over ideology and advocacy,” the group said.
The parents group noted that, according to the federal register, 33,967 comments on the proposed grants were submitted to the Department of Education. The vast majority “expressed concern over the Biden administration’s support for making racism and slavery the centerpiece of American history.”
PJ Media’s Stacey Lennox said the news “should underscore the importance of grassroots action at the local level, which many of us have ignored for too long.”
“Putting forth candidates for local elections and petitioning local governments needs to become a higher priority. The insertion of critical theories will continue without parents remaining vigilant and involved.”
Earlier this month, the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers association, adopted a pledge at its annual meeting to “share and publicize” information on CRT, “what it is and what it is not,” the Post Millenial reported.
The resolution states the “USA’s economy/social order is built on interactions between different cultures/races” and that “to deny opportunities to teach truth about Black, Brown, and other marginalized races minimalizes the necessity for students to build efficacy.”
The union will educate members who “want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric.”
The plan will provide a “study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.”
The NEA also wants to partner with Black Lives Matter to create special education materials based on Critical Race Theory. And it urges the implementation of new special days in the school calendar, including a celebration of George Floyd’s birthday on Oct. 14. The union envisions it as “a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression.”
The head of another major teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, has vowed to defend educators who implement CRT in classrooms.
“Mark my words: Our union will defend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history. Teaching the truth is not radical or wrong. Distorting history and threatening educators for teaching the truth is what is truly radical and wrong,” said Randi Weingarten in a virtual speech to the AFT.
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. pic.twitter.com/BMRDoAK0sA
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) July 3, 2021
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