by Robert Fireovid

The Vermont School Boards Association, the Vermont Superintendents Association and the Vermont Principals Association recently emailed an advisory statement about critical race theory to all school board members in Vermont. 

To say the least, it’s a whopping eye opener about the direction of public education in Vermont. To some, it reveals that public schools have become an especially inferior option for K-8 education.  

First, some background. 

What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?  

This section is derived in large part from the writings of James Lindsay, co-author of Cynical Theories (see https://newdiscourses.com/2021/01/what-is-critical-race-theory/). We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Lindsay and other very bright freethinkers exposing the Marxist dogma infecting much of our ruling class. 

“Critical Race Theorists,” as they call themselves, assume racism is present everywhere and look for it “critically” until they find it. They believe that (1) they are uniquely endowed with the ability to perform this assessment according to a subjective “lived experience” of racism, and (2) they are able to perform this assessment without any evidence of racism.  They contend that everyone who doesn’t do this is complicit in the problem, including those who merely disagree with them.  Critical Race Theorists believe that anyone who is not a member of an oppressed race want to maintain their supremacy. 

It’s important to understand that critical race theorists are against liberalism and the liberal order upon which Western societies are founded, and they reject both equality and neutral principles of constitutional law (these were the backbone of both the abolitionist movement that ended slavery and the Civil Rights Movement). They also reject legal reasoning and Enlightenment rationalism. This makes Critical Race Theorists unreasonable, illiberal, against equality, and anti-American, by definition.

In summary, Critical Race Theorists present a radical view of our society and of us.  In short, Critical Race Theory is a Religion, an anti-American one at that.

What the VSBA, VSA and VPA email says about CRT  

The top of p.2 says (highlighting is mine)…

CRT originated in the 1970s as a legal and academic framework developed to examine the ways in which racism and bias are embedded in societal structures and ultimately contribute to unequal opportunities and outcomes. Further, CRT recognizes that race is a socially constructed idea rather than a biological reality.

CRT is not synonymous with everything related to race and racism and it is not a catchall term for diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. There is nothing in CRT that is centered on blaming any individual or class of persons or promoting one race as superior to another.

Given the facts presented above, the last sentence in the VSBA/VSA/VPA statement is totally false. Do these so-called “leaders” of Vermont’s public education often make claims without sufficient research, or they are intentionally trying to gaslight school board members?

Further, in the last sentence of the first paragraph, these “leaders” appear to declare that CRT is correct to reject the notion that the color of one’s skin is a biological phenomenon. Rather, they say race is a “socially constructed idea,” a nonsensical statement. 

Finally, in the first sentence, these “leaders” imply that “systematic racism” really exists and that CRT was developed to examine said systematic racism.  In short, these “leaders” have revealed themselves to be full-fledged priests of the CRT theology.

The current public school system in Vermont is all about “equity”

This is at the bottom of the first page of the VSBA/VSA/VPA statement…

We must continue to create more welcoming, equitable, and inclusive school communities, while remaining steadfast in our advocacy for equity-focused initiatives on behalf of each and every student in Vermont.

Most Vermonters would agree that all schools should be welcoming, inclusive, and provide equal opportunities for education to all citizens. However, “equity-focused” is very different. While equality is about equal opportunity, “equity” is about setting up unequal playing fields in order to achieve equal outcomes (see Lindsay for more information: https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-equity/). Equity is analogous to “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” a phrase popularized by Karl Marx as a compact description of communism.

Indeed, the VSBA, VSA and VPA definition of equity is about equal outcomes (see https://www.vtvsba.org/equity-resource; you might need to copy and paste this url into your browser).

It is necessary and understood that schools must act to give economically disadvantaged children extra learning opportunities, but the expectation must be that a child must still work to realize the fruits from such an opportunity.  To give students “A” or “B” grades when the child doesn’t work to achieve that level of proficiency, or worse, to deny other children who do the work and achieve that proficiency from receiving their just recognition, or to prevent children willing to do the work from the opportunity to excel – these are all perfect recipes for divisiveness and societal suicide.  

The bottom line is that schools should focus on having children receive the intellectual and practical skills they need in adulthood.  The schools are NOT where wide-scale political and social engineering should be orchestrated or implemented.  

The VSBA/VSA/VPA statement also claims that there are “persistent opportunity gaps” but does not offer any evidence of such.  What are these opportunity gaps?  They don’t say, probably because they actually mean “different outcomes.”

Global citizens?

The VSBA/VSA/VPA statement often refers to “global citizenship” or “teaching global citizenship.” This focus on global citizenship begs the question, “When did Vermonters agree to this installation of a global government?” 

Policy making at the state and local level should consider shared humanity, but having Vermont public schools groom children to be willing subjects of a global government is frightening. The Vermont General Assembly (legislature) enabled the public schools to do just that! The VSBA/VSA/VPA email references this sedition (see p. 2)…

Vermont’s Education Quality Standards (or Vermont State Law) require(s) that each supervisory union deliver a curriculum that aligns with standards approved by the State Board of Education. Specifically, Education Quality Standard 2120.5 states that “each school shall enable students to engage annually in rigorous, relevant and comprehensive learning opportunities that allows them to demonstrate global citizenship (including the concepts of civics, economics, geography, world language, cultural studies and history)”.

Conclusion

It will take a concerted effort by the public over several years to bring the Vermont public school system back to basics. However, the stark reality may be that the system is unredeemable.  Until the State legislature at least replaces “global citizenship” with something like “shared humanity” in the Education Quality Standards, I encourage everyone to pull their children out of the public schools. This is especially so for children in K-8 grade, who are completely defenseless against school-based indoctrination.