We Must Stop the CRT Indoctrination of Our School Children

A couple days ago, a friend of mine asked me if I was planning to vote in the November election, and my response to her was, “Absolutely, this is one of the most important election cycles in Virginia’s history.” I know we hear this trite phrase during every election year, but this is a critical time for the Commonwealth – where the rubber meets the road, as they say – and I believe this really could be the most important election of our lifetime.

Global radicals and leftists have been waging a war against Christianity throughout the United States for decades, and sadly, they have managed to gain a foothold in Virginia. Indeed, they are threatening to destroy the faith and bedrock of traditional values that have been a mainstay in our beloved Commonwealth since becoming a part of the United States in 1776. What’s even more concerning is that they are using our most valuable treasure to help fulfill their extremist agenda – our children.

Specifically, school boards throughout the Old Dominion have been incorporating Critical Race Theory (CRT) into K-12 curriculum. CRT advances the Marxist ideology that, by default, all interactions originate from racism, our nation’s history is built on racism, and virtually all injustice can in some way be traced back to racism. Further, in a mission statement, Albemarle County public schools claims, CRT instructs that “white people are inherently and irredeemably racist and benefit from various systemically racist power structures that white people have put in place and perpetuate.”

In sum, critical race theory assumes that everything about American society is inherently racist, and that racial minority groups will never be equal until American society is completely reformed.

Relegated to left-leaning universities and academic journals for decades, CRT has increasingly become the core philosophy in public institutions including public school systems throughout the country -- and Virginia is no exception. In fact, the two largest counties in Virginia, Fairfax and Loudoun, have led the efforts to change education in the Commonwealth by embracing CRT.

At the beginning of the 2020 school year, while many parents were trying to figure out how to juggle their work schedules with having their kids attend on-line school from home, teachers, principals, and other administrators in Fairfax County were attending a one-hour Zoom conference hosted by “celebrity author” Ibram Kendi on “anti-racism” and “critical race theory.” According to a statement released by a Fairfax County spokesperson, the goal of this Zoom conference, which cost taxpayers $44,000, was to help the school system to develop a “caring culture.” Certainly, developing a caring culture within a school’s system is a noble cause, but the way I understand it, critical race theory and “anti-racism” do just the opposite by pitting subcultures against one another to be seen as enemies.

Fairfax County School Board also introduced new “anti-racism” and “anti-bias” curriculum, which is steeped in Kendi’s divisive ideology, to the school system this past year. Yep, students in Fairfax County, the tenth-largest school district in the country, with exceedingly high academic standards, and often touted as THE model school system for the entire country, began indoctrinating their K-12 students with the warped ideas of “critical race theory” in September 2020.

Rest assured Fairfax County isn’t alone in their quest to brainwash youngsters with CRT propaganda. Since 2018, Loudoun County has spent $442,500 on diversity training as a result of their desire to implement CRT into the school system’s curriculum. $314,000 of that was spent on coaching and training sessions hosted by a California-based business that works with schools to “create educational equity and social justice by addressing bias and oppression.”

Additionally, the Loudoun County school district teamed up with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to create a new “social justice” school curriculum. The SPLC is known for using intimidation tactics such as creating a “hate group list” to advance their radical LGBTQ+ and Marxist agendas. Proposed lesson plans under this new curriculum include restructuring kindergartners’ history and social studies classes to emphasize slavery as foundational to American society.

However, the quest to drive CRT’s Marxist principles into the hearts and minds of every child in the Commonwealth doesn’t end in Northern Virginia.

In 2019, Albemarle County school board unanimously voted to adopt an “anti-racism” policy intended to build “racial consciousness” by incorporating CRT into its curriculum.

Last February, more than 50 elementary school teachers were required to participate in a meeting entitled “Advancing Equity Through Continuous Reflection,” where they were instructed that “One of the most freeing things that white people can do…is to say ‘of course I’m racist’.” Additionally, at Lynnhaven Middle School in Virginia Beach, approximately 25 teachers from a school leadership team were told to read a book called “The Racial Healing Handbook,” where topics included “religious privilege, white privilege, and adultism.” If you’re wondering what Adultism is, so was I – according to this book, it’s the oppression of children, adolescents, and those who are perceived as young in society.

Sadly, those of us who are concerned with the indoctrination of our children don’t have to contend only with school boards – we also have to compete with big tech giants like Amazon, who donated thousands of dollars to support CRT initiatives in Virginia. According to the group Parents Defending Education, at the request of the director of diversity and inclusion at Arlington Public Schools, Amazon provided between 500-600 copies of Kendi’s book “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” so that co-author Jason Reynolds would speak with students.

As one might expect, because of its divisive philosophy, CRT has generated enormous controversy. Parents across the Commonwealth are concerned and frustrated that their school boards want to indoctrinate their children with this perverse, Marxist propaganda. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the mayhem that ensued at the Loudon County school board meeting on June 22nd, the outcry from parents is falling on deaf ears.

The left has made its plan for Virginia clear – they are going to radicalize our beloved Commonwealth by implementing policies such as CRT in our schools, that chip away at our shared conservative values. And they aren’t the least bit of ashamed of their fanatical agenda. It’s up to us to stop them. The only way to ensure that we win this battle in the schools is to win the battle at the polls in November.