Key GOP Senators support pro-CRT legislation

Bill backed by Cornyn, Cassidy, and Inhofe would push CRT on states

What’s the quickest way for Republicans to dampen the enthusiasm of their base and stall the momentum that’s been building in their favor for a year? Here’s a good candidate: Partner with the Biden administration in its quest to push Critical Race Theory (CRT) on every public school in the country.

Might some Republicans do this? Yes. In fact, some are.

Stanley Kurtz tells the story here. At issue is a piece of legislation called the “Civics Secures Democracy Act” (CSDA) that has just been reintroduced in the Senate. Kurtz explains:

Over a six-year period, this $6 billion pot of competitive grant money will create a de facto national [civics] curriculum — just like Common Core. States desperate to tap into the federal gravy train will have to tailor their civics and history grant proposals to the Biden administration’s liking. And abundant evidence shows that Biden’s Education Department is pushing CRT.

That evidence includes the executive order issued on day one of the Biden administration infusing so-called equity principles into all administration policies. It includes deputy secretary of education Cindy Martin’s support for CRT prior to her appointment.

There’s also the Education Department’s pro-CRT criteria for history and civics grants and the Education Department’s promotion of the CRT-infused Abolitionist Teaching Network. And let’s not forget the Justice Department’s attempt to intimidate parents who fight CRT.

The good news is that the Civics Secures Democracy Act can’t pass without Republican support. The bad news is that the Act appears to have such support, and not just from the very small number of usual suspects.

John Cornyn is a co-sponsor of CSDA, and he is not alone among conservative Senators. Says Kurtz:

Sadly, while this is largely a leftist-backed plan, we have Republican senator John Cornyn to thank for giving CSDA “bipartisan” political cover. Last year, in an open letter to Cornyn and Representative Tom Cole, the Civics Alliance convened by the National Association of Scholars appealed to both legislators to abandon CSDA. When Cornyn responded with misleading and mistaken claims about the bill, I rebutted.

Yet now, the leftist-dominated coalition backing CSDA has added Republican senators Bill Cassidy and James Inhofe as co-sponsors of the newly reintroduced bill.

The CSDA’s mischief isn’t limited to doling out fat federal grants that will motivate states to impose CRT and politicized “action civics” on America’s students. In addition, as Kurtz explains, the legislation would align the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the nation’s report card, with its new vision of history and civics, and then tie state grants to performance on NAEP.

In that way, funding to states would be determined by the extent to which schools successfully indoctrinate their students in leftist ideology. This would effectively override state and local control over standards and curriculum, handing the leftist civics community power to craft what amounts to a national curriculum.

Furthermore:

The bill would funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to the overwhelmingly leftist nonprofits that push action civics and CRT on schools, and it would incentivize local school districts to work with them. On top of that, the same woke schools of education that churn out CRT-based curricula would get their own pot of hundreds of millions of dollars to devise teacher-training programs based on the new, woke vision of history and civics.

States and local school districts would then be pressed to work with these leftist ed schools as a condition of their own grants. There is no more certain way to infuse CRT into the classroom.

Thanks to the support of Senators Cornyn, Cassidy, and Inhofe, there’s a chance that CSDA will pass the Senate and become law this summer. If this happens, a Republican victory in the midterms will come too late to prevent the federal imposition of CRT.

Moreover, passing CSDA might limit the scope of Republican gains in the midterms due to a dampening of enthusiasm for a party that dropped the ball in the fight against CRT. Thus, Republican support for CSDA isn’t just educational madness. It’s also political malpractice.

Kurtz speaks for me when he says:

Let’s hope more Republican officeholders speak out against CSDA in the coming days. Nothing could tear the party apart faster than federalizing CRT by culpable neglect.