Fear and Ignorance Override Education in Texas
“Critical race theory is the idea that racism is embedded in legal systems and not limited to individuals. It’s an academic discipline taught at the university level. But it has become a common phrase used by conservatives to include anything about race taught or discussed in public secondary schools.”
As of December 2nd, Abbott and Texas have continued to tighten the reigns and control attempts around teaching CRT, or anything like it- in Texas schools.
The reality is that CRT is complex and is not taught outside of college, however, fear-based thinking has now given conservatives and racists the sense that they should be able to keep children from learning the truth about enslavement, the holocaust, anything related to sexism, racism, queer studies… basically any topic that even mildly attempts to question or dismantle white supremacy and privilege.
It is a gross overreach of the state into schools and deepens the harm to every child and their future, especially BIPOC.
“All of this is really about routing out any acknowledgement of the salience of sex, race, gender and silencing those conversations, which, in the end, ultimately hurt students of color and students in the LGBTQ community.”
-Chloe Latham Sikes, deputy director of policy at the Intercultural Development Research Association
Under the new law, a “teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” The law doesn’t define what a controversial issue is. If a teacher does discuss these topics, they must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”
It also requires at least one teacher and one campus administrator at each school district to attend a civics training program that will teach educators how race and racism should be taught in Texas schools.
There are more than 1,200 school districts in Texas. The cost to develop and implement the training program alone would be about $14.6 million annually, according to the Legislative Budget Board.
Such a waste of precious time, money and education.
