Teaching of Critical Race Theory has no Place in Alabama Education

Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. Among its claims, it teaches that the color of a person’s skin is more important than as Martin Luther King exalted “the content of a person’s character.” It is antithetical to all we believe as Alabamians.

In August, the Alabama State School Board passed a resolution that banned the teaching of certain concepts or tenets that promote Critical Race Theory. Several Alabama school systems HAD spent time and money trying implement tenets of critical race through the back door by trying to implement a program titled “No Place to Hate,” This action by the board stopped these back door efforts in their tracks.

Alabama Governor. Kay Ivey voted for the resolution. “As I’ve said many times, CRT doesn’t belong in Alabama schools,” Ivey said. “CRT currently isn’t being taught in Alabama classrooms, and I’ve previously called on the Alabama School Board to keep it that way. We need to focus on teaching Alabama kids how to read and write, not hate.”

This vote applied to all public kindergarten through the 12th grade but has no effort on higher education.

Now the Faculty Senate at the University of Alabama is getting in on the act. The Senate passed a resolution urging the University, including the Board of Trustees, to resist all efforts to ban CRT. They are making the outlandish claims that banning CRT is against their freedom of speech and academic freedom. These assertions are completely false. Teachers or professors do not have the academic freedom to teach the earth is flat even if that’s what they believe. Teachers do not have the freedom of speech to use their taxpayer funded Alabama classrooms to proclaim that all Muslims should be banned from the University campus. They do however have the right to post their beliefs on social media on their own time. Teaching CRT in the classroom is just as outlandish.

It is now up to the legislature to ban CRT in higher education as well.

Representative Danny Crawford has prefile HB11 that does just that. I urge all legislators to immediately get to work on it when they convene in January and pass it unanimously.