Texas educators admit they defy Abbott’s Critical Race Theory ban with ease
February 15, 2023
In Accuracy in Media’s latest undercover investigation, educators in the reliably red state of Texas detailed how they are able to ignore Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) 2021 Critical Race Theory ban.
“We’ve gotten around it by saying, ‘Well, we’re just not teaching that,’” Evan Whitfield, director of science at Coppell Independent School District, told AIM investigators on hidden camera.
Abbott signed House Bill 3979 in June 2021. The legislation does its best to prohibit the teaching that some individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
But, regardless of the amount of attention paid to detail in the law’s text, educators have proven that they are willing to adapt to continue teaching the divisive concepts associated with CRT.
“I think we just fly under the radar,” Brad Cloud, director of instructional technology at South San Antonio ISD, said.
When investigators asked Marissa Perez, the ELAR Content Coordinator at Edgewood ISD, if the law had affected them, she said no.
“We do not follow much of, like, what Abbott is trying to get us to do,” Perez said.
“The superintendent really does what he believes is best for kids and not necessarily what is popular with the crowd, right? Or politics at the time.”
Perez isn’t the only one whose district is openly defying the ban. Wendy Dutton, human resources director at McKinney ISD, also admitted to AIM’s investigators that her district has yet to change anything.
“I don’t feel like we’ve knocked anything out that we’ve already done. Like, we haven’t banned any books or haven’t done anything yet.”
“We wait until we get a lot more direct instruction,” she said.
Lancaster ISD curriculum coordinator Angie Knight told investigators that because her district is “majority African-American,” it will refuse to comply with the law.
“There are going to be things that will never be, no matter what anyone tells us, we’re not going to eliminate that,” Knight said.
Millie Reynolds, who is North East ISD’s assistant director of Secondary Social Studies, said that the processes for addressing schools that defy the law are difficult and that “nobody wants to go through that process.”
“There are a few [MAGA parents] but they don’t win the argument,” she told investigators.
She echoed several of the educators that AIM investigators spoke to who agreed that laws such as Abbott’s CRT ban only really serve to placate voters.
“What they like to do is talk about it on TV to get votes,” Reynolds said.
While a state law against CRT and the principles associated with it already exists in the state, it clearly doesn’t stop activist teachers and administrators from injecting it into schools.
The only true remedy for this is school choice.
Several school choice bills have already been introduced in the Texas state legislature this session.
Senate Bill 176, introduced by state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), would be one of the largest school choice wins in the state, if passed.
The bill would “establish the Texas Parental Empowerment Program to provide funding for approved education-related expenses of eligible children admitted into the program.”
Under the program, families of students who opt out of public school would receive a payment from the state for the average cost of a Texas student’s education, which is about $10,000 a year, according to the Texas Tribune.
“What my bill would do is it would empower every single parent in the state of Texas to choose which education works best for their children’s unique educational needs,” Middleton said after introducing the measure.
Public educators in states – red states even – spanning the entire country have expressed their unwavering commitment to CRT and social justice, making it increasingly evident that the only answer for parents is school choice, where the money follows the child.
These investigations have made it clearer than ever that the only solution is school choice. Click here to join us in our fight. With one click, you can tell your elected officials to promote school choice in your state.