Quote:News that teachers union president Randi Weingarten did everything she could to pivot away from talking about critical race theory and its increasing adoption in public schools (covered here by RedState’s own Kira Davis) comes into sharper focus when considering this must-read piece by Josh Kraushaar in National Journal detailing a new poll showing that very few parents are comfortable with this new, radical curriculum shift in their children’s schools.

A new poll conducted by Republican polling firm Competitive Edge Research and given exclusively to National Journal shows that while parents broadly support the ideas of inclusion and diversity as part of school curriculum, they veer sharply right and form more of a consensus against the notion of teaching children that their race is one of the most important defining characteristics about themselves.

One of the few polls to examine the level of support…suggests the backlash to this type of educational activism is bipartisan. Commissioned by a newly launched group called Parents Defending Education, formed to “fight indoctrination in the classroom,” the survey found there is deep and widespread opposition to equity programs that call on students to check their “white privilege,” teach them that America is a systemically racist country, and promote social-justice causes.

The survey, conducted last month…found broad support for generic calls for diversity and inclusion. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said it was at least somewhat important to “promote social equity” in school. But when drilling in on details, the political tide turned. A sizable 55 percent of respondents said placing a “greater emphasis on race and gender” was not important to them, including about one-third of Democrats. A whopping 70 percent majority rejected the notion that schools should “teach their students that their race was the most important thing about them.”

Further, as Kraushaar notes, “over two-thirds of respondents opposed teaching students ‘that America remains structurally racist today,’ with 58 percent expressing strong opposition to that pedagogy.”

Respondents also balked at history classes focusing “on race and power and promot[ing] social justice” with 59 percent of respondents rejecting that curriculum shift, and 50 percent strongly opposed. “A whopping 75 percent of adults surveyed said teachers should not ‘teach students that there is no such thing as biological sex, only gender preference’,” Kruashaar writes. Another 51 percent of those polled on the question of whether schools “should hire diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants or administrators to train teachers” were opposed to those types of hiring practices.

The National Journal piece discusses this poll primarily in terms of how this kind of bipartisan opposition to critical race theory might affect political races like the ones brewing in newly-blue parts of Virginia. But there are larger implications for national politics as well, and Weingarten’s stumbling change-of-subject interview is indicative of what’s happening with unions as their numbers decline.

The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union has fallen since 1983, when 20% of American workers were union members, though it did rise slightly between 2019 and 2020, according to a separate Center analysis. In 2020, 10.8% of U.S. workers were in a union.

While the Pew poll acknowledges union membership drops are viewed differently by Democrats and Republicans, the drop itself could indicate the policies and politicians unions have historically promoted are increasingly out of touch with the desires of average Americans, which could force a shift in union positions if they want to survive. Look no further than Amazon employees in Alabama voting overwhelmingly against joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.

Unions embracing less radical policy positions is potentially very bad news for a Democrat party pushing those same radical ideas that have traditionally relied on unions for political support.

Quote:At a public meeting, a black woman in Loudoun County, Virginia, erupted in a fiery denunciation of the school board’s seeming intent to implement the teaching of Critical Race Theory, blasting, “CRT is racist; it is abusive; it discriminates against one’s color. … Think twice before you indoctrinate such racist theories. You cannot tell me what is or is not racist. Look at me. I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together and we are strong.”

The woman began by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’” she said. “Now I have a dream that we will implement love, not hate, or supporting another Jim Crow’s agenda. CRT is not a ‘nice dialogue,’ it was a tactic that was used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slaveries many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves. CRT is racist; it is abusive; it discriminates against one’s color.”

Shaking her finger, she snapped, “Let me educate you: An honest dialogue does not oppress. An honest dialogue does not implement hatred and injustice; it’s to communicate without deceiving people. Today we don’t need your agreement. We want action and a backbone for what we ask for today: to ban CRT.”

“We don’t want your political advertisement to divide our children or belittle them. Think twice before you indoctrinate such racist theories. You cannot tell me what is or is not racist. Look at me. I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together and we are strong. This will not be the last greet-and-meet. Respectfully.”





The Daily Wire reported on March 16:

A group of current and former teachers and others in Loudoun County, Virginia, compiled a lengthy list of parents suspected of disagreeing with school system actions, including its teaching of controversial racial concepts — with a stated purpose in part to “infiltrate,” use “hackers” to silence parents’ communications, and “expose these people publicly.”

Members of a 624-member private Facebook group called “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” named parents and plotted fundraising and other offline work. Some used pseudonyms, but The Daily Wire has identified them as a who’s who of the affluent jurisdiction outside D.C., including school staff and elected officials.

The Daily Wire later reported that Interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler, in response to the furor that erupted after the revelation of the “enemies list,” said that “LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to…. but does have a Culturally Responsive Framework.”

That 28-page document contains elements that echo key critical race theory concepts and was written in part by Equity Committee member Tara Hewan. Hewan had called for the school system to ban students from wearing materials related to former President Donald Trump, The Daily Wire noted.

The Daily Caller reported on March 23 that a recall campaign had been launched by a group called Loudoun Parents for Education (LPE) targeting six members of the Loudoun County school board for “neglect of duty, misuse of office, and incompetence in the performance of their duties” after reports surfaced accusing them of participating in the Facebook group “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” that included calls to list parents who opposed Critical Race Theory being taught in schools or wanted in-person learning restored.

LPE issued a press release stating, “Not only is this a failure of their duty to represent their constituents, but it raises serious questions about Virginia’s open meeting laws.”

An attorney for the GOP political action committee called The Virginia Project sent a cease-and-desist letter to one of the six board members, writing:

You commented to this Facebook group that you were concerned that Loudoun County parents opposed to the teaching of critical race theory or “equity” in Loudoun County Public Schools were “gaining support” and that your fellow school board members should be pushed to “call out statements and actions which undermine our stated plan to combat systemic racism at LCPS.”

The letter continued by asserting that one member of the Facebook group had explained that volunteers were needed to infiltrate Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT) and similar groups, hack or shut down and hijack websites and organizations.

The letter addressed the school board member: “You did not ask your fellow Facebook members to stop what they were doing, you did not rebuke or reprimand them, and you did not warn them about the risks of engaging in the above described illegal, reckless, inflammatory and irresponsible actions.”