Similar efforts have played out in state legislatures across the country, from Idaho to Missouri to Rhode Island, as Republicans have sought to restrict how issues of race and racism are taught in public schools. They have taken aim specifically at critical race theory, an academic movement that posits that historical patterns of discrimination have created race-based disadvantages that persist today in modern systems of power. The administration’s proposed rule protested by Mr. McConnell and others does not mandate any curriculum changes. In their letter, Mr. McConnell and the other Republicans denounced the focus. “Our nation’s youth do not need activist indoctrination that fixates solely on past flaws and splits our nation into divided camps,” they wrote.

Source: New York Times April 30, 2021 20:49 UTC