South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recently signed an executive order barring Department of Education officials from applying for any federal grants in history or civics related to Critical Race Theory. The executive order would be in place until after the 2022 South Dakota legislative session. South Dakota joins other red states around the country taking steps to ban the extremist left-winged Critical Race Theory from being taught in public institutions.
Gov. Noem emphasized that students should be learning America’s true history by studying both our triumphs and our mistakes. She said it would teach students that America remains the shining example of exceptionalism throughout the world.
“Critical race theory has no place in South Dakota schools. These ideas are un-American. We are ‘one nation, under God, indivisible,’ yet critical race theory seeks to divide us based on inaccurate revisions to our nation’s history,” Noem said.
Noem has previously called out Critical Race Theory for its divisive rhetoric, adding that it’s “offensive” and “not American.” During a June interview with Fox News, Noem shared that Critical Race Theory should not be taught in the classrooms. She emphasized that it only creates division among students.
In a Fox News op-ed piece with Dr. Ben Carson, Noem wrote that a great nation cannot survive if its citizens are taught to hold their own country in contempt. She said Critical Race Theory not only pits humans against one another on the basis of race and gender, but it also rejects America’s most defining principle that we were all created equal.
“Critical race theory is a deliberate means to sow division and cripple our nation from within – one brainwashed and resentful student at a time. And while foreign adversaries like China and Russia surely work to inflame our divisions, we are doing this to ourselves,” Carson and Noem wrote.
During the executive order’s announcement, Noem mentioned that the US Department of Education will remove all references to the New York Times 1619 Project and Ibram Kendi. She said the revised proposals from the Department of Education will still advocate critical race theory “in all but name.” The governor talked about classrooms being meant for education, not indoctrination, and that they will continue to further address the issue in the state.
The executive order states that they prohibit any curriculum that encourages students to take positions on the basis of race, sex, or the historical activity of a student’s race or sex. It also goes on to say that it will prevent schools from politicizing any education, including the requirements for protesting or lobbying during or after school.
South Dakota Secretary of Education Tiffany Sanderson, South Dakota State Historian Ben James, and members of the Department of Education removed the CRT-related references from their American History and Civics-National Activities Grants. The Department said they would remain focused on providing an “honest, patriotic education” in the state’s school systems.
Gov. Noem said Critical Race Theory keeps us divided by “inaccurate revisions” to our nation’s history and that they will push for additional public school guidelines with the department for the 2022 school year and beyond.
So far, eight states have passed laws banning Critical Race Theory in the classrooms including Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, and South Carolina. About 20 states have introduced similar legislation.
Identity politics is trying to destroy America’s founders and the Constitutions in our classroom. The radical left has been at it for a while now and will stop at nothing to enforce their ideology in order to make everyone feel like they are victims of white supremacy.
The radical left wants to preach about a million different genders and CRT being the “savior of mankind,” even though students are struggling to read, write, or answer basic math problems. They want students to think the way they want them to think, instead of thinking for themselves.
