President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking to elevate critical race theory and the dangers of misinformation in the country’s classrooms by prioritizing federal grants for programs that would teach students about the two subjects.
Biden’s Education Department proposed the priorities for American history and civics education curricula through a regulation published this week after the president signaled the approach via executive actions taken early in his term.
The first priority’s objective is to encourage “culturally responsive teaching and learning” in schools by giving precedence to grants for “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives” into their syllabuses, according to the guidance.
Quoting from professor and activist Ibram X. Kendi, who popularized his “anti-racist” theory, the idea is to create “identity-safe” classrooms in a post-George Floyd school environment.
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“There is growing acknowledgement of the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society,” the regulation states. “This acknowledgement is reflected, for example, in the New York Times’ landmark ‘1619 Project’ and in the resources of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History.”
The second priority cites a 2017 Brookings Institution report that found that investing in news literacy should be high on any government’s agenda. It follows the 2020 election, which former President Donald Trump contested by pushing unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. House Democrats impeached Trump for a second time in February for inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, primarily based on those claims.
“Civics education can be an opportunity to help students develop the skills necessary to meaningfully participate in our democracy and distinguish fact from misinformation,” the regulation stipulates. “Well-designed programs can fuel student engagement in our democracy and provide students with the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate the materials they encounter by developing their information literacy.”
The rule contends that the “benefits would outweigh any associated costs,” with the public comment period ending May 19.
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Biden signed an executive order during his first week in office directing his administration to take a “whole-of-government” approach to addressing racial inequity. Racial inequity became a pillar of his campaign after Floyd’s death last May.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes during an arrest. Video of the incident sparked protests over police brutality and racial injustice around the country and the world. A jury is considering whether Chauvin is guilty of second-degree murder, among other lesser offenses.
