WASHINGTON—This week, the National Education Association (NEA) adopted a formal business item to “research” and discredit the comprehensive work that The Heritage Foundation and other organizations have done in exposing the left’s effort to force critical race theory in schools, on the military, and on corporate America. Lindsey Burke, director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy, and Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow in Heritage’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy, released the following statement Thursday in response to the NEA’s attack:

“The nation’s largest teachers union is obsessed with smearing any criticism of critical race theory. CRT is a radical academic discipline that compels students to act on the Marxist idea that the world is divided between victimizers and their victims—statuses that are based mostly on race and ethnicity, but other immutable characteristics as well. Is this the best use of NEA resources for serving our nation’s educators? Do hard-working teachers really want their union dues empowering a political attack machine that wants to scare parents and others, including teachers themselves, who have real concerns about teaching that America is inherently racist or stereotyping students based on their skin color?

 

“Heritage is proud of its comprehensive work in this field, which has always focused on explaining the facts behind critical race theory and how it is infecting all aspects of our everyday life. We stand with parents, educators, lawmakers, and other Americans who want children to learn about all of America’s history, without indoctrinating them in a toxic narrative that undermines student unity and achievement or implementing CRT’s racially divisive principles in ways that violate the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution. Efforts to treat students or educators differently based upon their skin color not only betray fundamental principles, but they also violate federal civil rights laws and other statutes.

 

“As a think tank devoted to the principles and values that make us great as a nation, Heritage will continue to take on ideas like CRT, while offering education choice that puts the power of education decision making where it should be—with parents. We will stand with them as they help students understand different perspectives on controversial issues without compelling them to believe a certain viewpoint.”