Dear Colleagues:


President Joe Biden wants educators to teach students that racism is endemic in America. He and his “woke” allies think students should learn that our nation was born of the desire to enslave other humans, not as a struggle for freedom. They also believe that the government should racially discriminate, today and in the future.

The president wants these things so badly he’s asked his secretary of education to prioritize grant funding for K-12 history and civics curricula that preach this revisionist history <[link removed]>. That would be a huge mistake. The vile, ahistorical teachings of critical race theory should be consigned to the ashbin of history, not taught as sacred ideology in our schools, as Lindsey Burke, Mike Gonzalez, and I explained in commentary <[link removed]> that ran on the
Tribune Wire this week.

Elevator pitch: This pernicious ideology is already making its way into classrooms across the country — even without the proposed stimulus of federal grants. It promotes racial stereotypes and assumes that humans act according to their category, not as individuals. Read on <[link removed]>.


What Else We’re Working On
Fighting discrimination. I talked to Newsmax <[link removed]> this week about discrimination—and how this should
have no place in America. I explained that the new “woke” agenda is pushing for discriminatory activities in classrooms based on teacher and student skin color and other immutable characteristics instead of the content of someone’s character. You can watch the segment here <[link removed]>.


Not helping students in need. Should the federal government take the hard-earned dollars of American families and use it to give welfare to the middle-class and wealthy?


The answer should be obvious: Of course not. This turns welfare on its head.


Welfare is supposed to serve as a safety net for those in need. But the Biden administration and some legislators would like to turn the needs-based federal school meal programs into a blanket entitlement: free school meals for all. Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Daren Bakst and I write this week <[link removed]>, “It’s
past time to get federal school meals back on track and serving its intended recipients: those in need.” Read on <[link removed]>.


Washington lets unions drive reopening plans. Last week, Jude Schwalbach wrote in the Daily Signal <[link removed]> about how at least two of the CDC’s guidelines for reopening schools were taken verbatim from suggestions made by the American Federation for Teachers, one of the largest teacher unions in the nation. “While American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten brushed off the emails as ‘routine’ correspondence, The 74’s Mike Antonucci <[link removed]> noted that Weingarten’s own words capture the conundrum: ‘The problem is that it’s routine,’ he wrote. This ‘routine’ correspondence illustrates the all-too-common occurrence of teacher union lobbying setting the tone for agency guidelines,” Schwalbach noted.


Fox News <[link removed]> reached out to Jude for further comment about the federal agency’s lopsided collaboration with
special interest groups. Jude's statement explained, "When CDC guidelines are taken verbatim from language suggested by powerful teachers unions, it diminishes the public trust in our civil institutions. Parents—the biggest stakeholders in education—do not have the political clout to affect CDC reopening guidelines, yet teachers unions have a direct line to policymakers in the upper echelons of the CDC."


Getting into college…Lindsey Burke and Mike Gonzalez write in the Daily Signal <[link removed]>  <[link removed]>about the elimination of the SAT and ACT in admissions decisions at colleges within the
massive University of California system. As they argue:
 
"For all of the shortcomings of standardized tests—and the particular problems with the College Board, which owns the SAT—these college entrance exams attempt to approximate an objective
assessment of a student’s capacity to do college-level work. Getting a good score reflects hard work and often is rewarded with admission to a chosen college."
 
And while there's clearly no love lost for the College board, California's decision - the result of a 2019 legal battle - has more to do with rejecting meritocracy than calibrating the college admissions
process.
 
"...California’s move isn’t born of a desire to correct course on assessments and identify better tools for screening applicants to the UC System. It’s born of a desire to abandon meritocracy, to align the state’s policies with the broader goals of critical
theory <[link removed]>. The ability to do academic work should determine who gets into college, not race, national origin, sex, or any other immutable characteristic," they conclude.


…and who picks up the tab? Lindsey also joined NPR's All Sides with Ann Fisher to discuss the problems with student loan debt
forgiveness. You can listen
here <[link removed]>.
Warmly,



Jonathan Butcher
Senior Fellow in Education
Center for Education Policy
Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
The Heritage Foundation

-