Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia is set to introduce a trio of bills Friday, all aimed at countering critical race theory in public schools.
The Empowering Local Curriculum Act, Defending Students’ Civil Rights Act and Empowering Parents Act aim to “stop federal encroachment in curriculum, protect students from the harmful ideology of critical race theory, and defend parents’ God-given rights to educate their own children,” according to a fact sheet shared with the Daily Caller. (RELATED: ‘Usual Hiring Practices’: School Defends Hiring Of Drag Queen Arrested On Child Porn Possession)
Good introduced all three bills in 2021, but Good’s press secretary Marjorie Jackson tells the Daily Caller that the bills were not taken up for debate in Democrat-controlled committees.
Parental rights are under attack in blue states and cities.
Parents must fight back against these policies.https://t.co/qxDoIdNsAS
— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) August 25, 2023
The Empowering Local Curriculum Act prohibits the Department of Education from requiring that schools receiving public funds teach Critical Race Theory. The Defending Students’ Civil Rights Act defines Critical Race Theory as a discriminatory belief in the inherent superiority or inferiority of one race over the other.
The Empowering Parents Act creates a private right of action for parents against teachers who adopt certain policies towards their children without their consent. Examples include cases in which a teacher “[n]eglects to report sexual assault or harassment on school property to the appropriate law enforcement authorities” or “[c]ompels a student to observe or espouse obscene or sexual materials without the consent of the parents.”
“Divisive curriculum like Critical Race Theory, or any other woke political agenda, has no place in the classroom,” Good said in a 2021 press release upon initially introducing the Empowering Local Curriculum Act. “My bill would hold the Biden Administration accountable and give back the ultimate authority to parents when it comes to their children’s education.”
Critical race theory is an ideology that sees America as fundamentally racist and views every power structure and interaction through the lens of race, with an oppressor class (whites) pitted against an oppressed class (blacks). Most high school students say they were taught that “white people have white privilege” and “white people have unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people.”
The Department of Education drew backlash in 2021 when a $3 million grant program for teaching U.S. history and civics cited the New York Times’ 1619 Project and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi.