The nation’s largest teachers’ union erased its pledge to commit to teaching critical race theory (CRT) in public schools from its website.
Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, the Heritage Foundation’s lobbying arm, first made the discovery and published the news on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.
The National Education Association (NEA) recently convened for its annual representative assembly, where it debated and advanced a number of resolutions, including one that would launch a campaign to promote CRT in the 14,000 school districts it collaborates with.
The language of the item was explicit in its support for the doctrine, saying, “We oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.” It also included a provision to jumpstart a study into that “critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.”
New Business Item 39 aims to arm union members with the knowledge and resources to combat “anti-CRT rhetoric” and promote curricula infused with the ideology in their school districts.
Critical race theory teaches that systemic racism is intrinsic to America’s history and national fabric and that the country’s white descendants bear a burden for their ancestors’ past injustices, particularly slavery and the discriminatory Jim Crow laws.
The deletion from the NEA website comes after the organization voted last week to conduct opposition research on groups that oppose integrating CRT into academic frameworks. The amendment allocated $56,500 to investigating groups in the anti-CRT movement.
“NEA will research the organizations attacking educators doing anti-racist work and/or use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals, and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked,” the item read.
The item acknowledged the powerful influence privately funded think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and parents in the resistance are exerting in the fight to curtail CRT.
“The attacks on anti-racist teachers are increasing, coordinated by well-funded organizations such as the Heritage Foundation. We need to be better prepared to respond to these attacks so that our members can continue this important work,” it said.