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Millions of schoolchildren are learning about everything from “white privilege” to “systemic racism” and “unconscious prejudice” in the classroom, according to a forthcoming study on critical race theory (CRT) in American schools.
Researchers at the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank that has put CRT in the spotlight, found that 93 percent of respondents ages 18 to 20 had learned at least one aspect of the controversial theory of racial justice in schools.
Report author Zach Goldberg said the findings were “disturbing” and contrasted with claims made by some teacher groups that CRT was not taught to high school students, but was limited to university law courses.
“Even assuming exposure is overestimated in the current data, it is safe to say that a significant portion of the pre-university student population is exposed to it,” Goldberg posted on social media.
Critical Race Theory: on the syllabus
Opponents of critical race theory gathered in front of a school board headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia last year
The report comes amid debates about teaching racism and gender identity that have exploded into angry clashes involving parents and teachers at school board meetings across the country.
CRT rests on the premise that racial bias—intentional or not—is ingrained in U.S. laws and institutions, and that the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws continues to create an uneven playing field for non-white Americans.
While most Americans are in favor of educating high school students about slavery and racism in American history, many are against CRT, which many conservatives see as a rewrite of history to indoctrinate children with an “awakened” ideology.
As Americans tackled racial and social injustice after the George Floyd police murder in May 2020, several Republican-led states, including Florida, Georgia and Texas, have enacted regulations limiting education about the role of racism in the US.
While crime, immigration, abortion access and inflation are voters’ top concerns, education in CRT in schools is also enlivening many Republicans and could win votes in some key states in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Goldberg and other researchers involved in the study are colleagues of think tank fellow Christopher Rufo, who has largely set the right-wing agenda for teaching gender ideology and CRT in schools.
The team surveyed 1,505 young adults about their experiences at school and found that 93 percent had learned or heard from an adult about one of the central components of CRT in school.
These include how “America is a systematically racist country, that “whites have privilege” and “unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people” or that the nation is built on “stolen land.”
More than half of college students heard or heard from an adult that the U.S. was a “patriarchal society” and that gender was an “identity choice, regardless of the biological sex you were born in,” researchers found.
Students learn about gender and ‘unconscious bias’ in the classroom
The think tank team surveyed 1,505 young adults aged 18-20 about their experiences at school
While millions of parents would be happy if their children studied such topics in the classroom, the study authors said the real problem was that they were presented “critically,” with no competing ideas and as “undisputed facts.”
“This is indoctrination and governments must act quickly to put an end to it,” the report said.
“Unless voters, parents and governments act, these illiberal and unscientific ideas will spread more widely and replace traditional American liberal nationalism with identity-based cultural socialism.”
The study echoes last month’s findings from another conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, which ranked Florida at the top and New York and Washington DC at the bottom on a scale for “freedom” in schools.
The conservative think tank has released its first-ever Education Freedom Reportwho says it evaluates states for value for money, parental input, and transparency in their school systems.
It penalizes states with “wakeful” teacher unions that tolerate CRT classes.
It praised Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential White House candidate for 2024 who has made national headlines with his efforts to limit race-based conversation and analysis in schools and businesses.