Three bills passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee require implementation of the controversial “critical race theory” in Washington public schools.
Senate Bill 5044 applies to grades K-12 of all public schools in the state. The summary provided by the Washington State Legislature describes the new law as a training bill “Concerning professional learning, equity, cultural competency, and dismantling institutional racism in the public school system.”
The new law requires equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism training for all public school workers, KNDU reports.
Senate Bill 5194 requires community colleges in the state to have an active plan to address diversity, equity, and inclusion and provide resources to address those needs. The new law requires each public institution of higher education in the state to develop training to eliminate structural racism among faculty and staff. The bill requires the institutions to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion as defined by current radical theories.
State Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen ) says critical race theory is false and divisive.
“The elements of critical race theory recently codified into Washington state law by Senate Bill 5044 are divisive to our people and corrosive to our children’s learning,” Wash told Budget and Tax News. “They are based upon irrational and anti-intellectual notions of the human mind and spirit and of the human condition.
“It’s a shame that narrow partisan majorities in the state legislature were able to force this sorry stuff into ‘trainings’ required of teachers, school administrators, and new school board members,” Wash said.
Wash says he tried to add reasonable limits to the bill but they were rejected on a party line vote.
Enthusiastic teachers and staff are already embracing the plans, says Jason Rantz at The Federalist, with school districts developing plans to push CRT, including the use of the term “equity” instead of “equality” when talking to students.
“At Seattle Public Schools, they’ve even developed a ‘Racial Equity Team,’ a group of far-left educators seeking that schools make all of their decisions through a racialized ‘equity’ lens,” writes Rantz.
Another school district holds a race symposium every year for white staff to engage in self-criticism over their skin color and alleged privileges.
Critical race theory tells white people that race is a social construct designed to facilitate a culture of white supremacy, Rantz says.
“Staffers learn that black people cannot be racist, because they don’t have power, that whites benefit from white privilege even if they experience ‘high poverty’ and that virtually every American institution is founded in white supremacy,” writes Rantz
The Edmonds school district allows “safe space” only for nonwhite staff members, and its schools press white staffers to feel shame and guilt over owning land. Critical race theory teaches that American land today is “stolen” because it originally belonged to indigenous people.
Other states are taking steps to prevent implementation of CRT in their schools, KEPR reports, with several states already in the process of passing laws to ban CRT. Republican lawmakers and parents say the CRT curriculum encourages antiwhite racism and social division. Students are not taught civics or history but just to understand everything through the lens of race, with white people as villains.
In Texas, state Senator Brandon Creighton has introduced a bill to ban CRT teachings. Creighton told KEPR lawmakers will hold the line in Texas and ensure accurate teaching of the nation’s history and current conditions. Creighton told KEPR he wants teachers “focusing on the ideas that make our country great and the story of how our country has risen to meet those ideals, not that any race is inherently superior or place political requirements on students.”
Teachers and staff are trained in CRT and they, in turn, recruit students to activism and political advocacy, Rantz says. In Washington, the three bills Inslee just signed into law guarantee CRT teachings will rule the day and the state will churn out radical progressive activists as students are indoctrinated with critical race theory, Rantz says.
“Upon graduation, you’ll have eager young adults ready to address those mythical systems of oppression,” Rantz writes. “It’s indoctrination in its truest and most dangerous form.”
“More generally, the toxic mix of identity politics, grievance-peddling and resentment that make up critical race theory will do this country no good,” Walsh said. “When you read past the jargon and buzzwords, CRT boils down to one faulty premise: Two wrongs make a right. That’s childish. Nihilistic. Destructive.”