WASHINGTON – From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have launched into a fight against the teaching of “critical race theory,” which was a niche academic term just a year ago.
Experts in critical race theory say it’s about acknowledging how racial disparities are embedded in U.S history and society. GOP lawmakers in the past few months have succeeded in pushing its repudiation to the top of state legislative agendas.
Governors in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee have signed measures to forbid concepts of critical race theory in schools this year. Arkansas’ Republican governor let a similar measure become law without his signature, while a proposal in Iowa is waiting for its governor’s approval.
Lawmakers in Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and other states have waded into the debate, as well, although some of those efforts have failed.
Meanwhile, a group of Republican attorneys general from 20 states has sent the Biden administration a 10-page letter chastising federal officials for using two grant programs as “a thinly veiled attempt at bringing into our states’ classrooms the deeply flawed and controversial teachings of critical race theory and the 1619 Project.”