President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed executive orders to promote parental choice in school selection and end federal funding for curricula that he called the \u201cindoctrination\u201d of students in \u201canti-American\u201d ideologies on race and gender.
\nThe two directives, which come a week after Trump was sworn into his second term of office, are in keeping with his campaign promise to remake the country\u2019s education system in line with a rigorous conservative agenda that Democrats say could undermine public schools.
\nThe first order directs the Department of Education to issue guidance on how states can use federal education funds to support \u201cchoice initiatives,\u201d without providing further details.
\n\u201cIt is the policy of my Administration to support parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children,\u201d the president said in the order. \u201cToo many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school.\u201d
\nHis second directive aims to stop schools from using federal funds for curriculum, teacher certification and other purposes related to \u201cgender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology.\u201d
\n\u201cIn recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight,\u201d it reads.
\nTrump and his allies throughout the campaign have accused public schools of teaching white children to be ashamed of themselves and their ancestors due to the country\u2019s history of slavery and discrimination against people of color.
\nThe second order, without evidence, claims that teachers have been \u201cdemanding acquiescence\u201d to concepts of \u201cwhite privilege\u201d or \u201cunconscious bias\u201d and thereby promoting racism and undermining national unity.
\nThe executive order will have a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on subjects related to race and ethnicity in schools, said Basil Smikle Jr., a political strategist.
\n\u201cI would imagine that it would restrict the kind of reading materials that are even available to students outside of the classroom,\u201d he said.
\nAlthough that order does not invoke the term \u201ccritical race theory\u201d by name, it employs the language often used by CRT opponents to criticize teaching about institutional racism.
\nA once-obscure academic concept, the theory has become a fixture in the fierce US debate over how to teach children about the country\u2019s history and structural racism. An academic framework most often taught in law schools but not in primary and secondary schools, it rests on the premise that racial bias \u2014 intentional or not \u2014 is baked into US laws and institutions.
\nConservatives have invoked the term to denounce curricula they consider too liberal or excessively focused on America\u2019s history of racial discrimination. Supporters say understanding institutional racism is necessary to address inequality.
\nChristina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University, said the order came as no surprise.
\n\u201cAs a candidate, he said there was radical indoctrination of students,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s making sure to frighten students and educators across the country so they can\u2019t teach the real history of the United States.\u201d
\nIt was not clear how the order issued on Wednesday would affect how the history of race relations is taught in American schools. During his inaugural address last week, Trump criticized education that \u201cteaches our children to be ashamed of themselves \u2014 in many cases, to hate our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed executive orders to promote parental choice in school selection and end federal funding for curricula that he called the \u201cindoctrination\u201d of students in \u201canti-American\u201d ideologies on race and gender. The two directives, which come a week after Trump was sworn into his second term of office, are in keeping …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":76322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76320,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76300\/revisions\/76320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}