Conservatives are pushing back against Critical Race Theory, which proponents say more accurately details the history of the U.S.
Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper explained Critical Race Theory, what proponents and critics say and how it has been embraced in Ohio on America’s Work Force Union Podcast. She also discussed a controversial bill that could remove funding from public school districts.
Implementing Critical Race Theory
According to Cropper, the same people who led campaigns for school privatization and defunding of public schools have a new target in Critical Race Theory. The argument has struck a chord with many, who feel it demonizes white people.
Critical Race Theory is a curriculum designed to challenge traditional teachings and provide deeper context to lessons being taught. The aim is a more accurate education so tomorrow’s leaders do not make the mistakes of their predecessors.
Cropper said many Republican politicians have sought to ban the teaching of topics they deem devise, such as a deeper look into slavery, discrimination against women and people of color and more. These arguments have been shaped as proving the teaching to be anti-white. She added teachers are not pushing their views and teaching students what to think, but are instead teaching students how to think.
Critical Race Theory in Ohio
Cropper said families in some districts are pushing back against Critical Race Theory, such as those with students in the Rocky River City Schools. Rocky River High School has a 91 percent white student body and 1 percent Black student body.
Some families in Rocky River feel that critical race theory is designed to show how horrible white people are. Cropper refuted this and said the lessons of critical race theory are valuable and need to remain.
Ohio’s backpack bill
Cropper ended her segment by detailing legislation designed to further siphon funding from public school districts. The bill seeks to allow all costs associated with educating a student to be removed from the public school and follow them to whichever school they decide to attend.
The ultimate goal of the bill and the coinciding campaign is to sow distrust in public schools. It has long been a goal of some at the Ohio Statehouse to expand voucher programs, fund faith based education and more.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
