Noem bans education grants
PIERRE-Last week, South Dakota joined the growing number of states fighting against critical race theory (CRT). Over the last few months, Americans have heard the term ‘critical race theory’ dozens, if not hundreds, of times. But what is it?
Simply put, critical race theory approaches American history through the lens of racism. It is centered on the concept that racism is systematic within our country’s institutions. CRT began as an academic movement in the 1960s to study the intersection of laws and race, and was formalized in 1989. Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw was one of the pioneers on critical race theory and a groundbreaking writer on civil rights, critical race theory, race, racism, and the law. Crenshaw has degrees from Harvard Law School and Cornell University and is a Professor of Law at Columbia University and a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California.
Though it has been studied in-depth for decades by scholars, lawyers and other intellectuals, there is no evidence that critical race theory itself has been taught in public schools. In fact, most Americans had not heard the term until this year.
In what appears to be a push-back to the public racial-reckoning the United States has begun since Goerge Floyd’s murder last year, several GOP lawmakers have tried to get critical race theroy banned from their state’s schools. Republican Governor Kristi Noem is the latest to join those ranks with her recently issued Executive Order 2021-11, which bans the South Dakota Department of Education from applying for any grants related to history or civics for the next year.
Noem begins the executive order with a statement about her concerns about a “growing movement throughout the country to reject patriotic education… in favor of divisive and false ideologies like critical race theory.” Noem added to that sentiment in a later news release, saying, “Critical race theory has no place in South Dakota schools. These ideas are un-American. We are ‘one nation, under God, indivisible,’ yet critical race theory seeks to divide us based on inaccurate revisions to our nation’s history. Our students should learn America’s true history by studying both our triumphs and our mistakes. Only then will students learn that America remains the shining example of exceptionalism throughout the history of the world.”
But the scholars behind the theory have a different perspective, as recently stated by Dr. Crenshaw in a recent interview on CNN, “[CRT] just says, let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes. Critical Race Theory is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it because we believe in the promises of equality. And we know we can’t get there if we can’t confront and talk honestly about inequality.”
Noem’s executive order was issued in response to two grant proposals recently issued by the United States Department of Education, the American History and Civics-National Activities Grants. These grants promote the teaching and learning of American history, government, civics and geography that would benefit low-income and underserved students and will award over $2 million to applicants.
Governor Noem specifically mentions these grant proposals in her executive order, citing the grants’ inclusion of references to the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project (which examines slavery in America and the systemic racism that resulted) and anti-racist author director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, Ibram X. Kendi. The executive order claims the 1619 Project and Kendi’s work are “infused with factual errors”.
Prior to Noem’s executive order, the DOE did remove all references to Kendi and the 1619 Project from these grants, but Noem addressed that action in a statement saying, “The revised proposals from the US Department of Education still advocate critical race theory in all but name. We are the Mount Rushmore State, home to our nation’s greatest monument to our history. And we take the study of American history seriously. Our classrooms are meant for education, not indoctrination, and that is how we will continue to operate in South Dakota.”
According to the July 19 Federal Register, the DOE grants are geared to higher education institutions “other nonprofit or for-profit organization with demonstrated expertise in the development of evidence-based approaches with the potential to improve the quality of American history, civics and government, or geography learning and teaching.”
Although these grants are intended for higher education institutions, Noem has barred all state Department of Education officials from applying for any federal grants in history or civics until the 2022 legislative session. Noem’s executive order states that in the 2022 legislative session, it is anticipated that legislation will pass that will “prohibit any curriculum that requires or encourages students to take positions against one another on the basis of race, sex, or the historical activirty of members of a student’s race or sex” and “prevent schools from politicizing education by prohibiting any curriculum that requires students to protest or lobby during or after school.”
Native Sun News Today’s Kirk Dickerson had this response to Noem’s order, “After reviewing the Governor’s Executive Order, I believe the Governor is under the impression that these grants and the 1619 Project are unpatriotic. Governor Noem disagrees that a project which states that ‘racism runs in the very DNA of the country’ is not factual. It is hard for someone who is not a minority in this country to understand this. They do not face the inequity of citizenship in this country like people of minority groups. They do not get turned down for business loans, employment and housing based on their ethnicity alone. She cannot ignore that racism does run through every DNA vein in this country. When the United States expanded west, who were the victims of this expansion? Native Americans lost millions in population and loss of territories. In the southwest, Mexicans were killed and removed as America laid claims to its territories. How are these factual errors when they are facts right in the History books in the curriculum? They did not gain these territories without committing acts of violence… When the Constitution was written, African American were still slaves and Natives were not counted as citizens. To this day, the Constitution of the United States has not really proven to grant the rights of minorities… It is true, however, that the Constitution has made our country a beacon of light, but at the same time the Constitution is ignored when pushing a right wing political agenda.”
You can read Governor Noem’s full executive order on our website at nativesunnews.today/articles/executive-order.
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August 9, 2021