As a result of a hard-fought battle by parents and concerned residents, the Johnston County Board of Education recently passed a policy banning the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in its school system.
While these insidious teachings may go by different names — Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, White Privilege, or racial equity — they all share a common goal of teaching our children that the United States is an inherently racist and evil country.
Prior to the decision to ban CRT in Johnston County, I joined over 200 parents and students to raise awareness of the issues facing our schools. Unfortunately, the examples are abundant.
Recently, Johnston County Public School teachers participated in the State Math Summit, which included a teacher training that describes math — yes, MATH — as racist.
Johnston County Public Schools approved training in which white students will be “re-educated” in their historical knowledge. The problem is, instead of basing this curriculum on facts, it equates the work of our founding fathers to oppression.
As if this doesn’t go far enough, they’ve even approved a training that calls for librarians to “diversify” book offerings in an effort to “combat systemic racism and sexism.”
Goodbye Shakespeare. Hello 1619 Project.
Meanwhile, the real civil rights crisis is right in front of us. In the Johnston County region (North Central), only 29% of African American children and 31% of Hispanic children are reading at grade level — a figure both heart-breaking and inexcusable.
Here’s the good news: We can turn this around. We have gifted educators in this county. We must do everything in our power to equip our teachers with the best training in the basics of education, such as reading, writing and arithmetic. We must reject leftist propaganda that seeks to divide and indoctrinate our kids.
We can all agree that we live in an imperfect nation, and certainly we must learn from the mistakes of our past. Indeed, our children should be educated on the historic facts. But, our kids must also learn that they live in the greatest country on earth where all things are possible because of our remarkable founding documents, like the Constitution.
The Johnston County Board of Education policy is a positive step forward. It enables our teachers the ability to teach an accurate history and disallows any reckless indoctrination of our kids. Quite simply, it seeks to remove the politics of the progressive left and let our great teachers of Johnston County teach.
Unfortunately, in their defeat, the progressives and teachers’ unions have moved to attack the very parents who exercised our First Amendment rights at the school board meetings. Recently, the National School Boards Association wrote President Biden asking the federal government to recast the parent protesters as domestic terrorists.
This is a dangerous precedent and potential federal overreach. The Johnston County Board of Education should disavow the National School Boards Association and their letter.
As the current school board policy showed, when parents and public officials work together, we can get things done. Let our great teachers of Johnston County teach. And, let’s continue to work together when issues arise.
Jill Homan is a resident of Johnston County and mom of two children.
