The U.S. Department of Education recently walked back a proposal to prioritize federal education grants to K–12 public schools that promote Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and other similar curricula in America’s classrooms. Grant applicants were, among other things, to describe how their proposed American history and civics education projects took account of systematic racism in American history.
In response, nearly a dozen states had introduced legislation that restricted schools from teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), with Idaho being the first state to sign such a bill into law. Republicans Senators also sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that expressed their concerns about the politicization of teaching American history where only the country’s faults and failures are emphasized at the expense of our shared virtues and accomplishments.
Faced with this public and political pushback, Cardona backed down and wrote on the department’s blog that curriculum decisions “are — and will continue to be — made at the local level.”
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