Model Letter to School Board

Dear {School Board},

We are concerned parents who write to express our opposition to the introduction of several related ideologies and teaching practices into the curriculum, instruction, professional development of teachers and staff, and other policies of the {School District}.

We are Americans, all from different backgrounds, who want the best for all citizens of our community without regard to race, creed, sex, or any other group identity. We strive to live up to the ideals of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr., each of whom helped pave the way for the most free, equal, and prosperous society the world has ever known.

From Washington, we learned that “perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages,” so we will stand up for our children.

From Jefferson, we learned to take it as self-evident truth “that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” so we will treat one another that way.

From Douglass, we learned that the Constitution is a “Glorious liberty document” and to draw “encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions,” so we will believe in the institutions that inspired a man born in bondage to rise to become one of the most inspirational and respected men in history.

From King, we learned to dream of a world in which our children “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” We teach our children to hold to that ideal and we want their school to hold to that ideal.

We therefore oppose ideological concepts and pedagogies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), “The 1619 Project,” and so-called “action civics,” “anti-racism,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which amount to educational malpractice. These ideological concepts and pedagogies terribly harm our children’s schooling because they:

• Divide students by group identities such as race and sex and assign blame to groups of children on the basis of race, sex, and other group identities.
• Champion a distorted notion of “equity” that substitutes equality of outcomes for equality of opportunity as the goal in every area of life, and declares, slanderously, that any departure from equality of outcomes is the result of “implicit racism,” “systemic racism,” or other forms of malice.
• Teach hostility to America.
• Substitute vocational training in radical activism for intellectual inquiry and free judgment.
• Teach anti-intellectual ideologies, self-reinforcing assertions that share a defensive structure that rejects criticism as illegitimate, instead of providing a real education, which must always be open to challenge and disproof.
• Require students, teachers, and administrators to assert, and assent to, these ideological concepts and pedagogies, which thereby create a climate of fear and silence in {School District}, and compel our children, their teachers, and staff to conform to unjust authority rather than to judge freely and to speak and act fearlessly.
• Require the {School District} to violate the Civil Rights Act’s legal requirements for nondiscrimination, thereby placing it in legal jeopardy, and making the taxpayers who support {School District} liable for whatever penalties and fines {School District} may ultimately be found liable.
• Harm our children’s readiness to succeed after graduation, because these ideological concepts and pedagogies replace the instruction they need to be properly prepared for college and career.

These ideological concepts and pedagogies have already entered {School District}. We share below a few of the examples of how they have affected our children and their education.

• {Mission Statement}
• {Strategic Plan}
• {commitment to so-called “anti-racism”, “equity,” etc.}
• {Teacher/Administrator Training}
• {Political Endorsement of BLM, etc.}
• {politicized event}
• {classroom teaching}
• {plan to discriminate in student admission}
• {plan to discriminate in teacher/administrator hiring and promotion}

We demand immediate action to end and remove these ideological concepts and pedagogies from the {School District},by means of the following actions:

• Declare that {School District} is committed to institutional neutrality on partisan political issues, nondiscrimination by all employees of {School District}, equality of opportunity among all students and employees, free intellectual inquiry, affection for and allegiance to the United States of America, classroom inquiry, and rigorous standards that prepare graduates for college and career.
• Declare that {School District} is committed to the common humanity of all its students, and will apply equal standards and identical pedagogies to all students, without regard to race, sex, or any other group identity.
• Declare that {School District} explicitly repudiates ideological concepts and pedagogies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), “The 1619 Project,” and so-called “action civics,” “anti-racism,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” because they require {School District} to abrogate its fundamental responsibility to reflect American ideals and the proper education of children.
• Declare that {School District} explicitly repudiates concepts such as “implicit racism” and “systemic racism.”
• Declare that {School District} will seek and commit to intellectual diversity in hiring practices, curriculum development, guest speakers, contractual agreements, and external partnerships.
• Remove from all of {School District}’s materials and policies, including standards, curricula, committee remits, professional development and training material, any language that embodies or forwards ideological concepts and pedagogies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), “The 1619 Project,” and so-called “action civics,” “anti-racism,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
• Enact policies to ensure that all administrators and faculty act and teach in accordance with these commitments, and which provide disciplinary sanctions, up to and including termination of employment, for willful and continued refusal to cease using ideologies and pedagogies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), “The 1619 Project,” and so-called “action civics,” “anti-racism,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
• Enact a transparency policy that all {School District}’s proposed materials and policies, including standards, curricula, committee remits, professional development and training material will be publicly posted on {School District}’s website within one week of the time they are drafted, with an opportunity for public comment of not less than two weeks prior to any final adoption.
• Transparently collaborate with opponents of ideological concepts and pedagogies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), “The 1619 Project,” “action civics,” and so-called “anti-racism,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and invite them to attend all policy-making meetings of {School District}, to demonstrate that the administration of {School District} is upholding its commitments.

Some so-called “anti-racists” may insist that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination,” but we will continue to hold onto the truth so eloquently expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., that “darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

We urge you to respond to this letter at your earliest convenience.

Yours,
{Signatories}

APPENDIX

Critiques of Critical Race Theory and Action Civics

• The American Mind, “A Statement Regarding ‘Critical Race Theory’”
• David Bernstein, “Who Decides What’s Racist?”
• Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez, “Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and Its Grip on America”
• Stanley Kurtz, “‘Action Civics’ Replaces Citizenship with Partisanship”
• Thomas K. Lindsay and Lucy Meckler, “Action Civics,” “New Civics,” “Civic Engagement,” and “Project-Based Civics”: Advances in Civic Education?
• Sam Merrick and Samantha Hedges, “Critical Theory or Common Humanity? The Case for a Liberal Approach to Social Studies Education”
• National Association of Scholars, “The Challenge from Action Civics”
• National Association of Scholars, “Critical Race Theory”
• Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, “A Beginner’s Curriculum on Critical Race Theory”
• Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody
• David Randall, Making Citizens: How American Universities Teach Civics
• Christopher Rufo, Critical Race Theory Briefing Book
• Thomas St. Thomas, “Is Critical Race Theory Racist?”
• Daniel Subotnik, “What’s Wrong With Critical Race Theory: Reopening the Case for Middle Class Values”
• Carol Swain, “Critical race theory’s toxic, destructive impact on America”