Is critical race theory being taught in schools and did it help Republicans win on Election Day?

Public school teachers have taken to social media to warn that critical race theory is indeed part of their schools’ curriculums, contrary to what Democrats and academic officials claim.

Daniel Buck, a Wisconsin-based teacher, tweeted a video of himself Friday, saying it is “patently false” to claim that critical race theory has not saturated American classrooms today.

While Buck concedes that students aren’t reading critical race theorists directly, he warns, “the language, the theory, the philosophy, the application, the arguments and the policies of critical theory are worked into every part of schooling right now. It starts in the academy and leaks on into everything else.”

Buck’s tweet followed a viral video by Tony Kinnett, an Indianapolis public school administrator who said people who claim that critical race theory is not an integral part of the education establishment “are lying.”

“We don't have the quotes and theories as state standards, per se, but we do have critical race theory in how we teach,” Kinnett stated. “We tell our teachers to treat students differently based on color, we tell our students that every problem is a result of white men, that everything Western civilization built is racist, and that Capitalism is a tool of white supremacy.

Critical race theory and parental involvement in education became key issues last week in Virginia’s elections, although former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who lost his reelection bid to Republican Glenn Youngkin, assured voters that such theories were not being taught in the Commonwealth.

However, a 2019 report commissioned by Loudon County Public Schools to examine its racial climate is full of terms used by critical race theorists such as Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic.

As Neal McCluskey, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, expains, “the district’s “Division-Wide Equity Statement” talks about “dismantling…white supremacy.” And a draft equity plan calls for “LCPS educators to engage in professional learning about color consciousness and implicit bias.”

McCluskey continued to note that other school districts have also baked critical race theory into their curriculums. “The state of New Jersey, for instance, recently mandated that all public schools teach about “unconscious bias,” among other issues,” he wrote.

Education was ultimately a major issue for Virginia voters, and critical race theory was on many conservative minds on election day.  

“Under Democratic representation, we have seen a huge, dramatic shift in how kids are taught in the classrooms,” Gabriela DeMola, a Virginia-based voter told ADN America. “Instead of a responsive classroom, kids have been fed very biased propaganda that has only limited their self-esteem and advancement.”