Many organizations and publications have recently latched onto the idea of “banning/defunding” Critical Race Theory (CRT). While this might sound like a great idea that could save our nation, the fact is that the large majority of CRT funding is not coming from the taxpayers, and a majority of the messaging of CRT is not officially part of the curriculum. The fact is that CRT has been making its way into classrooms across the country for decades.
When conservative groups on the right use their time to complain, the left uses their time to increase the amount of private funding and create more and more groups to spread the most radical ideas that could destroy our country at an even faster rate. They do this by creating exceptional educational resources (books, lesson plans, texts, etc.) and conducting or hosting professional development and workshop seminars for teachers.
The effort to defund CRT is insufficient. The radical left pours money, and even more money on top of that, into their educational efforts. It doesn’t matter how big or small, once an educational organization is born in their crusade to spread hate and destruction, private donors open their vaults and throw millions of dollars their way.
Learning for Justice (formerly known as Teaching Tolerance), has access to over 500 million dollars of funding. City Year receives between 100-150 million dollars a year in funding. Facing History and Ourselves receives between 20-30 million dollars a year in funding. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation donates over 380 million dollars a year to mostly radical leftist educational groups. The Chan Zuckerberg initiative donates over 80 million dollars a year to mainly radical leftist educational organizations. NexGen America receives over 50 million dollars of funding a year. Teach For America receives over 300 million dollars in funding a year. In total the mostly private funding for just some of these groups is over 1.3 billion dollars a year, and they have access to an additional 700+ million dollars through partnered organizations and individuals.
Outside of these non-profits that are spreading this destructive ideology, you also have national membership organizations like the National Council for the Social Studies, The National Council of Teachers of English, National Science Teaching Association, and others that all provide resources and guidance to current educators.
Any effort is better than no effort at all. With that said, some efforts, as genuine and well-intentioned as they may be, will lead nowhere. The suggestion that suing school districts for “adopting” Critical Race Theory will end its influence is severely out of touch with reality, and banning the ideology to the extent that its philosophy is silenced does not align with American values and ideals of freedom.
School districts do not need to formally announce that they have adopted CRT; many of them have its presence simply in the lessons teachers choose for the classroom from a myriad of exceptional, highly radical, teacher resources, let alone their own creations. Remember that the greatest danger lies beneath the iceberg in that what you see is not nearly as threatening as what lies beneath. The power of the teacher to bring in materials, or in most cases create their own lessons, must never be underestimated. One of the most frustrating false arguments we have repeatedly seen from people with no K-12 teaching experience is that teachers somehow are programmed like robots to teach a “curriculum” without their own thoughts, words, or mind present. While a rare number of administrations may extend their reach into classrooms beyond what is appropriate, unless a teacher is on a Teacher Improvement Plan, administrators are extremely limited to the number of times they may be in your classroom. This allows a teacher to, for the most part, teach and say whatever they want as long as they tread carefully enough not to become suspicious.
If a school district is sued for citing CRT, they should just surrender and remove its verbiage from the materials under scrutiny. Then, sneak it in like they do everything else. On a professional development day, simply introduce a great new resource like Facing History or Learning for Justice (there, you will find CRT). Or, plug buzz words in place of anything that specifically says CRT. They can even just circulate lesson plans created by teachers amongst a department to advance collaboration.
Banning CRT seems a bit hypocritical in a land where the freedom of ideas is so highly cherished. The key is not banning the philosophy, but discouraging its influence on the minds of children by putting the best teachers in the classroom who will not encourage CRT, or other radical left talking points. Still, these talking points must not be silenced in the classroom. All students must be comfortable speaking their thoughts, at least to the teacher if not the whole class; this applies to conservatives, liberals, libertarians, capitalists, socialists, etc. Only a great teacher who does not encourage or flaunt a political viewpoint will achieve a truly free and enriched classroom. (Side note: Students who express disturbing viewpoints of sensitive matter will alert the teacher to any issues and be handled in an appropriate manner by the appropriate professionals.)
There is only one solution to ensuring that the minds of our children are not corrupted by forcing them to internalize such a destructive ideology, and that solution is getting conservative and moderate teachers in the classroom, and on all levels of education. With conservative and moderate teachers, we do not need to worry about the suggested resources or lesson plans written into a curriculum. Radical educators and administrators are getting more clever in how they are attempting to push teachers into using radical left talking points in their classroom, but a network of conservative and moderate teachers working together, even if it’s under the radar as many of us have been and will be for a while longer, will foster progress. Eventually, once the educational field is flooded with conservatives and moderates, the days of radical left control will be numbered and their reign over the minds of our children will come to an end.
