Texas attempted to ban Critical Race Theory in schools...but did it succeed?
By Carole Hornsby Haynes June 5, 2021 Published by American Thinker
The nation is watching as states begin to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools. The pressure was on Texas lawmakers to join quickly with other red states in passing its own. Though Republicans are crowing about their accomplishment, the bill sent to Governor Greg Abbott for his signature is worse than having none at all. A comparison of the original House Bill 3979 with the final version clearly shows that the 1619 Project, although it is specifically banned, effectively will be implemented and America portrayed as a systemically racist nation.
Once again, Republicans have been outflanked by Democrats.
The original bill proposed a civics class to teach students about our nation’s founding and self-governance. Teachers were prevented from the use of the highly controversial critical race theory. Because public school students are increasingly unable to answer even simple questions about the fundamental moral, political and intellectual foundations of our self-government, the civics course would use our nation’s foundational documents including the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist papers and excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
The bill bans schools from accepting private funding for the development of a curriculum, purchasing curriculum materials, and providing teacher training and professional development. This is to prevent private funding of “action civics” programs akin to that in Illinois where schools accept funding from the far left Robert R. McCormick Foundation to create their curricular materials for an action civics course and teaching training seminars.
The Democrat sabotage of HB 3979 began with an amendment to delete the Alexis de Tocqueville book excerpts and to add the “history of Native Americans” as “essential knowledge and skills that develop each student’s civic knowledge.”
Even though the main elements of critical race theory are banned, a string of Democrat amendments effectively overrides this. Sounding eerily like 1619 Project, the revised bill requires teaching “the history of white supremacy”and about the institution of slavery. It is doubtful that students will learn the truth about the history of slavery or that there are currently 40 million slaves worldwide – three times more than the total number in the 400-year history of the transatlantic African slave trade. Because Christianity is rejected as "the white man's religion that justified slavery," will students learn that it was 17th century Christians who attacked slavery’s immorality? Will they learn that one of the first slave owners in Virginia was a freed black?
Studying the civic accomplishments of the “oppressed” – referred to as “marginalized populations” – will undoubtedly provide an opportunity to push the racism theme with the Chicano movement, women’s suffrage and equal rights, the civil rights movement, the Snyder Act of 1924 (gave Native Americans full citizenship), and the American labor movement.
Students will be immersed in the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights and the work of Socialist Cesar Chavez, whose bust now graces Biden’s Oval Office. More Marxist radicalism will be foisted on these government school captives with the history of LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens), a leftist political group that supports open borders.
The Emancipation Proclamation has been thrown in as a civil rights document. Billed as the end to slavery, students will not likely learn that it freed only those slaves in the seceded states, but not in other Southern or in Northern states. Students also will not likely learn that this executive order was a political tactic using slavery to sway public opinion about the cause of the war and to discredit the seceded Southern states. Will students learn the truth about the economic tyranny of the South by the federal government or that secession was not unconstitutional?
With the study of “white supremacy,” revisionist history of the Civil War era, and a string of “oppressed” groups, we can expect the classroom to be an ideological platform to create further racial hatred and division.
The final bill adds this ban:
“(h-5) A school district or open-enrollment charter school may not implement, interpret,or enforce any rules or student code of conduct in a manner that would result in the punishment of a student for discussing, or have a chilling effect on student discussion of, the concepts described by Subsection (h-3)(4).”
Since that particular subsection is a list of the critical race theory elements that are banned, will students be encouraged to initiate and conduct discussions since teachers and schools cannot?
With both the Texas House and Senate being Republican led, voters expected them to stand their ground on this bill. Because they did not, students will have even greater exposure to Neo-Marxist indoctrination – soon to be legal under Texas law.
Despite the ban, we can be certain that some Texas schools will teach critical race theory especially since only social studies classes are included. What will be the state’s recourse since the bill has no mechanism for enforcement?
This deception is a stark reminder of another major education bill in Texas history. Even though the Texas Republican lawmakers gloated about how they had passed a law to forbid the adoption of Common Core Standards, some of the math processes are in Texas state curriculum standards and Common Core lessons are not uncommon in classrooms – disguised by a different name. There is no mechanism for enforcement of the Common Core ban in Texas.
As the public begins to understand the “Great Deception” of HB 3979, there is certain to be an even greater backlash by voters. In the end, it will be up to parents to stop critical race theory in their schools.