Pull the plug on activist classroom rules indoctrinating our kids

The United States has entered a “learning recession,” according to a new Education Scorecard report.Nationally, eighth-grade reading scores now stand at their lowest point since 1990, and fourth-grade reading has fallen back to pre-2003 levels: Only 31% of American fourth-grade students are proficient.California’s results were similarly dismal — yet this news doesn’t seem to be ringing any alarm bells in Sacramento.As the school year wrapped up, the state’s Department of Education was busy sponsoring a training for K–12 teachers that encouraged them to “take action” to transform schools into “liberatory systems.”Such trainings are no aberration.Activism and ideology, not student performance, are priorities not just in California but also in many other states.After the 2015 federal Every Student Succeeds Act gave states more control over school accountability and teacher quality, states used that authority to embed “culturally responsive education,” or CRE, into the rules and expectations for educators.From teaching standards and program approval to licensing requirements and professional development, the result has been a bureaucratic system that pushes teachers to incorporate activism into classroom activities.CRE isn’t as benign as its name suggests.Many parents assume it means that teachers should understand and make reasonable accommodations for students’ differing backgrounds, or give a full and honest account of our nation’s history, warts and all.But in many state frameworks, CRE goes much further.CRE rules and standards direct teachers to view society through the lens of an oppressor/oppressed dichotomy, to treat institutions (including their own schools) as inherently racist or sexist, and to encourage students to engage in activism.These frameworks often apply across subjects and grade levels.In some states, they begin with children as young as three or four.In many states — including Illinois, Pennsylvania, M...