Pittsburgh Schools Push CRT Curriculum

The Pittsburgh public school district is reportedly pushing educators to teach critical race theory in the classroom through the use of “racial equity learning resources” that claim America was built on racist ideas and economic greed.

Listed under the “character development” section of the district’s “programs” tab on its website, the “racial equity learning resources” provide teacher training on such topics as “discussing whiteness” and “culturally responsive teaching.”

One resource includes curriculum materials that were developed from “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” by critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds. The book argues “racist ideas have been stamped” into the United States’ “Constitution, laws, policies, practices, and beliefs of segregationists and assimilationists.”

In lessons developed from concepts in the book, students are asked to explain how America’s government is “emblematic” of the statement, “Racism is the bedrock of the USA.”

Critical race theory is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as the concept in which race is a socially constructed category ingrained in American law intended to maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites. It holds that the U.S. society is inherently or systemically racist.

“Meritocracy and the American Dream narrative are rooted in whiteness,” a key concept from Day 5 of the curriculum states, asking students: “In what ways is racism embedded in practices, policies, and laws?”

Pittsburgh Public Schools’ effort to train teachers on critical race theory comes amid a statewide push by Democrats to make widespread changes to state standards for teachers.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro released guidelines last year that require educators to recognize the “inequities and institutional biases” of schools before they can become licensed to teach in the state.

“The entrance of race theory into Pittsburgh Public Schools is not surprising, as parents have been attending school board meetings across the state with evidence that school assignments are riddled with questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion, social and emotional learning, social justice issues, and secular viewpoints concerning gender ideology,” Pennsylvania GOP State Rep. Barbara Gleim told the Free Beacon.

The teacher trainings also include a webinar that accuses “middle- to upper-class white, heteronormative, Judeo-Christian, able-bodied, English-speaking” men of being complicit in promoting “whiteness,” which the training calls a “place of advantage, privilege, or domination” that shapes “institutions, policies, and social relations.”

The webinar argues people are inherently racist, even if they do not mean to be, and claims the only solution is “antiracism.”

“As a parent and former school board member, I have grave concerns — especially for parents, who ultimately have the last say about what is being taught to their children,” Gleim told the Free Beacon.

The state lawmaker introduced a bill last month that aims to strengthen parental rights and end the requirement that teachers must “know and acknowledge that biases exist” in education to obtain their teaching licenses.

“In most areas of the state, including Pittsburgh, reading and math scores have declined significantly, yet the emphasis on student outcomes remains on these social soft skills and health-related issues that many parents believe to be in their purview of responsibility,” she told the Free Beacon.