Critical Race Theory Promoted in Washington State

The Washington State Board of Education (WSBE) appears to be actively promoting the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools throughout the state. A December 2 meeting of the WSBE included testimony from a hired consultant, graduate student Jasmin Patron-Vargas. Patron-Vargas “walked the Board through her Ethnic Studies Concept paper, here. The purpose of Ethnic Studies… is to ‘destabilize the K-12 education curriculum.’ She characterized this curriculum as a ‘system of oppression.’ She explained the goal of Ethnic Studies is ‘tearing down the default,’ ‘tearing down the standard,’ ‘tearing down those conventional views and perspectives that have dominated education.’”

Professor Mark Herring recently wrote, “If any good has come out of the Wuhan Pandemic—and it’s unclear that we can think in those terms yet—it is the realization of parents of school age children that public schools seek more to indoctrinate than they do to educate. This is not only apparent from deplorable reading and math scores that are regularly reported, but also from the fierce and unapologetic ‘wokeism’ of the National Education Association (NEA), the national teachers’ union.” Read his full article here.

Professor Herring also references the Education Consumers Foundation. According to their website, “the Education Consumers Foundation (ECF) is a non-profit organization that is financially and otherwise independent of the public education industry and its support groups.  ECF’s top priority is the aims and interests of the parties (students and parents) who rely on the services provided by schools, not the satisfaction of the persons and organizations that comprise the industry. ECF’s overall aim is to improve education by empowering those who use and pay for it.”

To learn more about the EFC, click here.