The last few years have seen the rise of parent activists, with school board meetings being covered on national news and the subject garnering political debate by candidates across the country.

But, perhaps the best example of how this movement tipped the scales of political power was in my home state of Virginia, with last year’s election of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Running mainly on the subject of education and the complaints by parents that their children were learning divisive content tied to Critical Race Theory (CRT), Governor Youngkin’s win rocked the Democratic establishment.

Mainstream media pundits swore that CRT was not being taught in public schools and didn’t exist. (Why they were so worked up over potential bans on something that “didn’t exist” gave the game away, but nevertheless.)

Fast forward to this year, and it turns out that data points show parents were not lying about the existence of CRT curriculum in their schools. Instead, a study by the Manhattan Institute illustrates what parents have known this whole time.

By The Numbers

The study by the Manhattan Institute was conducted by policy analyst Zach Goldberg and adjunct fellow Eric Kaufmann. 

The results will not shock parents and show that in every data point, over half of the respondents were exposed to CRT:

  • 82.4% had been taught or heard about CRT overall
  • 62% had been instructed or heard in school that the U.S. is “systemically racist”
  • 57% were taught or heard white people have “unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people”
  • 69% were taught or heard “white people have white privilege”
  • 67% were taught or heard, “America is built on stolen land”

In addition to questions regarding CRT, the survey also touched on gender issues, with the below results:

  • 53% were taught or heard “America is a patriarchal society”
  • 51% were exposed to teaching “gender is an identity choice”

Weird… because, if I recall, CRT didn’t exist and was just a red herring used by the Republican Party.

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Waiting For That Apology

When Governor Youngkin won his election last year, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace claimed:

“So, I think that the real ominous thing is that critical race theory, which isn’t real, turned the suburbs 15 points to the Trump-insurrection-endorsed Republican.”

No, sorry, Nicolle, Governor Youngkin won because Terry McAuliffe said parents shouldn’t have a say in their children’s education. I’ll hold my breath for her to be fired for peddling misinformation. 

Let’s also not forget the cries from school board members and teachers’ unions that parents were posing a threat for raising their concerns, even earning them the label ‘domestic terrorists’.

But, still no justice for those parents who were considered enemies of the state for caring about what was being taught to their children in the schools their taxpayer dollars fund.

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The Same Wolf In Different Sheep’s Clothing

You have to admire somewhat the perseverance of the left-wing extremists who continue to try to indoctrinate our youth. Within the Fiscal Year 2023 Biden administration’s budget is $468 million for something called the ‘community schools’ program.

This program is endorsed by our Department of Education and focuses on “culturally relevant” pedagogy and “restorative justice.” Sound familiar? 

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It should, because it’s critical race theory, just dressed up with a new title and verbiage to try to fool parents. But if you don’t believe me, the fact that the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, endorsed the program should be reason enough to be suspicious of it.

Randi says of this program:

“Culturally responsive practices, social-emotional learning, and community schools are not add-ons. Culturally responsive education values the knowledge and skills students bring from their homes and communities.”

But it shouldn’t surprise us that Randi is more focused on cultural responsiveness and this concept of social-emotional learning; it’s easier to keep dressing up CRT than it is to promote teaching literacy, math, and science.

SEL is CRT

Randi touches on a new phenomenon that is tied to everything lately in public schools, known as Social Emotional Learning or SEL. This seemingly harmless acronym is often pushed as a way to promote positive mental health practices in youth.

Hard to complain about something like that, especially when there seems to be a mental health crisis plaguing our children. However, peeling back the layers of this concept, it smells like something much different.

SEL promotes “self-awareness” in relation to identity. Well, what on Earth does that mean?

Allow me to explain. The idea is that students are taught to be aware of their identity in terms of belonging to or perhaps not belonging to either those who have privilege or those who are oppressed.

Otherwise known as Critical Race Theory. Don’t believe me? You can go to the website that is the cornerstone of SEL and find articles such as “Transformative SEL and Mathematical Liberation for 2SLGBTIQIA+ Students” and learn all about how math as we knew it is racist and biased against non-white non-heterosexual kids.

What Parents Want

Interestingly, the government and teachers’ unions would be shelling out so much money and time promoting things such as ‘community schools’ and SEL when you’d think they would’ve learned their lesson from watching last year’s Virginia state election. Maybe the recent dismal numbers from the National Report Card will wake them up.

The NAEP reported that fourth graders had a 5-point drop in math scores, the lowest since 2005. Their counterparts in the eighth grade experienced an 8-point decline in math, the lowest scores since 2003.

It’s easy to read and hear these numbers and either not fully grasp their gravity because you think your child is doing fine or you think that perhaps because you don’t have young children, you don’t need to worry about it.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

This country’s children are not learning math basics but are being taught how to hate each other. This country’s children are not learning how to read but instead are learning how they will either never be capable of success due to their inherent victim status or don’t deserve what they accomplish due to their inherent racism.

If you think that won’t affect you because you don’t have kids remember… these will be the adults who will be your nurse, your dentist, your employee, and any number of other critical future jobs that will shape your life and the future of our country someday. We should scrap the whole CRT SEL trash and get back to basics.

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