Are the BOE Members Correct When They Say CRT Is Not Prevalent in FCPS?
No, and it’s not even close. Part of the problem is that board members don’t seem to be familiar with what CRT is or its primary teachings.
When campaigning, several members of the current board stated that CRT is not taught in FCPS and that it was “a college-level law course.” It may be taught in law school, but members of any board of education should be familiar with what CRT is and how its principles find their way into public school lessons, policies, training, and curriculums. A thirty-minute review of how the Montgomery County School System integrated CRT and what is in their system would open their eyes. If any of the board members took a few minutes to review some of the books in the school libraries, like White Fragility and How to be an Anti-Racist, they would understand how ridiculous (and disingenuous) it is to state that CRT isn’t present.
When the Racial Equity Committee was developing its policies, they made it clear they intended to install an anti-racism culture to address disparities in outcomes; the discussions presupposed that racism is the cause and demonstrated a lack of understanding of the origins of the anti-racism approach (and why it is not the same as combatting racism).
In short, CRT is an ideology (some say a philosophy) based on principles that teach that America is an intrinsically racist country and that its institutions and systems, from the justice system to corporate structures and school systems, are all based on the privilege of being white. Its leading proponents like Ibram X Kendi (the author of How to Be an Anti-Racist) make no secret of this and say that white dominance oppresses other races and that the only cure to past discrimination is future discrimination.
The leadership of the firm hired for $70,000 (Insight Educators) is sold on the premise that institutional racism in public schools is the cause of disparities and has been quoted as saying that “education empowers individuals to disrupt the impact of systemic racism” hire educators that are “rooted in the tenets of anti-racism,” and work to “dismantle practices that perpetuate structural racism.” As we’ve documented, the concepts of anti-racism align with the basic principles of CRT.
A review of the causes of disparities must include a complete review of the root causes of disparities. This means economic, environmental, and behavioral causes, as well as racism. The study does not mention causes other than the inequitable nature of the school systems and seems to enter the survey with the belief that systemic and institutional racism is already and unquestionably present in FCPS.
If anyone on the board or in FCPS leadership tells you CRT is not present in the FCPS, they are naïve, uninformed, and/or being less than truthful.
To read more about CRT and FCPS, please see the links below.