Schools across the United States are 'weaponizing' their curriculums to 'indoctrinate' young children to 'turn them into activists', a former Virginia school board member warned on Thursday.
Elizabeth Schultz, who served on the school board of Fairfax County, said that the pandemic, and its subsequent home schooling, had lifted the lid on what was going on in classrooms.
'This is a serious problem that parents are realizing across the country,' Schultz said when she appeared on Fox News.
'The pandemic has revealed that our education system is being weaponized by school boards — school boards like Fairfax county that is certainly a bellwether district for what's happening in this country … are taking this time not to get our children back in school and learning in the classroom, but weaponizing their time and using taxpayer money to embed things like critical race theory by outsourcing this to consultants from New York City and beyond.'
Critical race theory is a reassessment of racial inequalities in the United States, which critics say emphasizes racial differences, and brainwashes white children into feeling guilty about the color of their skin.
Schultz is a senior fellow at Parents Defending Education, a former U.S. Department of Education official.
She spoke out as Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, issued a similar warning about schools in his state.
Kemp wrote to the Georgia state board of education saying he was 'extremely concerned' about the spread of CRT in schools.
He said that he had spoken to parents who were 'alarmed this divisive and anti-American curriculum is gaining favor'.
Kemp said it was 'ridiculous' that federal funding could be used 'to push a blatantly partisan agenda'.
Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, on Thursday spoke out against CRT in schools
The U.S. Department of Education under the Biden administration has proposed a new rule that, if adopted, would prioritize federal education grants to K-12 public schools that promote Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project - a controversial New York Times discussion of how slavery impacted the course of U.S. history - and 'anti-racist' activist Ibram X. Kendi.
In January, President Biden issued an executive order disbanding the '1776 Commission,' an initiative formed by former President Donald Trump as a response to the 1619 Project.
On Wednesday a coalition of 20 state attorney generals wrote to the education secretary, Miguel Cardona, asking him to reconsider proposals to introduce CRT and the controversial teachings in schools nationwide.
Students at Fairfax County public schools, where Schultz expressed concern about CRT
A classroom in Fairfax County, where Schultz was until recently on the school board
Schultz on Thursday appeared on Fox News to discuss an op ed she wrote for Real Clear Education.
In the article, published on Monday and entitled 'Our local school boards need parental supervision,' she complained at the amount of money and effort being put into CRT in her district.
'The Fairfax County school district is often a bellwether of what is occurring in communities nationwide,' Schultz wrote.
'Parents across the country should be vigilant. They should engage their school boards and investigate what their tax dollars are funding and whether it has anything to do with the priorities of their communities.
'A new poll reveals that voters overwhelmingly reject indoctrination in classrooms, with 70 per cent of respondents disapproving of teaching students that 'their race is the most important thing about them.' Clearly, our local school boards need parental supervision.'
Schultz told Fox that the problem was not limited to her state.
In New York, a teacher at Grace school in the East Village of Manhattan lost his job once he started criticizing the teachings, and a parent at Brearley School withdrew his daughter amid concern about CRT.
'This is a serious problem that parents are realizing across the country,' Schultz said.
She claimed that school boards are 'taking children and turning them into activists' by 'embedding' critical race theory into the curriculum and 'giving children days off for protests.'
Schultz's comments came after Loudoun County, Virginia parents last week pushed back on graphic books and critical race theory being taught in Loudoun County Public Schools, calling for an all-out ban on the curriculum.
'We have a serious problem in that parents need to be paying attention to what's happening at their local school boards,' Schultz said.
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