Good golly Miss Molly! You say it ain’t so? Critical Race Theory ideology and concepts are not being taught in South Carolina classrooms? And teachers aren’t being trained in these concepts?

Well, let’s see… The State newspaper reported just a few weeks ago about an inappropriate 4^th grade assignment where students were told to “write a journal entry responding to the following prompt: Choose to be a slave or a slave owner. Write a journal entry that describes your daily activities before the Civil War.”

Then there is evidence of a 9^th grade assignment at a Charleston County school where Whites are oppressors and Blacks are oppressed and children are taught riots are okay; contrary to teachings of Martin Luther King Jr.

And in Berkley County, Summer Reading Lists with critical race theory ideology are being pushed with extra credit and other incentives. The required summer reading for ELA and Honor students offers a gamut of literature based on White privilege and Black oppression.

Your own Director of Governmental Affairs told USPIE that since each school district is responsible for the implementation of their individualized curriculum, it is up to each individual school district to actually ban teachers from teaching critical race theory. So how in the world can you now say that it is not and will not be taught in South Carolina schools? Come on Molly.

When USPIE asked your staff to provide the lesson plans, slides and other materials used in a teacher training offered to South Carolina teachers named EQUITY AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE INSTRUCTION, their response was we had to FOIA the information. If there is nothing to hide, why must we FIOA the training materials?

It is obvious to us that you have made this fallacious statement to try to hush the noise you are hearing around the state about this racist instructional model. The racist theory has been and continues to be taught in South Carolina’s colleges of education who provide teaching credentials for many South Carolina teachers. And those teachers, indoctrinated through the colleges of education, are the ones who make up the liberal group named SC for Ed. Molly, they don’t need your permission to teach this trash to South Carolina children. In fact, they are in your face about it.

Then, of course, there is the rebranding that you are so famous for after you declared South Carolina was rid of Common Core simply because you renamed the standards. We know that the term “critical race theory” has become toxic and now is being referred to as Cultural Responsive Teaching, Diversity and Inclusion, anti-racism education, etc. We aren’t fooled by your semantics.

The New York Times 1619 Project, and what it terms “systemic racism,” is also influencing classroom instruction in South Carolina and is why SC Senators proposed legislation to combat this racist view of history. The thing that is ACTUALLY systemic in South Carolina and across our country IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY! It has been taught for decades in government agencies, government school systems, teacher training programs and even corporate human resources departments. You know this to be true.

You began your treatise by saying “… there have been many events and practices that have sought to divide our state, country, and our system of public education.” With all due respect Miss Molly, you have this backwards. It is Critical Race Theory, or whatever you chose to call it today, that seeks to divide our state and our country. We see it plainly and reject your rhetoric.

Parents need to protect their children by fighting racist teaching at the school board level. School Boards have the power to stop it.  USPIE has developed a guide to help parents with several great resources like templates for school board policy to prevent children being subject to this hateful teaching. Join the movement at www.uspie.org to restore local and parental control of education.