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U.S. Dept. Of Education Reverses Decision Regarding Critical Race Theory, Grants

The United States Department of Education announced a reversal of previous plans to require teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project for schools to be eligible for certain government grants after receiving pressure from many Americans, including Republican Sen. Mike Lee.

Sen. Lee’s argument against the plan is that the Federal government should not be involved in the creation of the K-12 curriculum for American history and civics education. According to Lee, critical race theory does not celebrate diversity rather, it weaponizes diversity. In an opinion piece featured in the Deseret News he wrote that critical race theory undermines founding, principles, institutions, social mobility, and history itself

The State Secretary of Education, Miguel Angel Cardona, said the goal of the program was to provide grants to schools that were seeking to diversify their curriculum to provide more perspectives relating to American history, civics, and government. He also said that curriculum decisions should continue to be made at the local level

 

In a blog post, Cardona announced the department would go forward with the creation of the new federal grants, but the grants would not require classwork based on critical race theory or the 1619 Project.