NC school board gets $7.9 million, but only after it OKs limits on how race is taught
The Johnston County school system will now get $7.9 million in exchange for imposing new rules that limit how teachers can discuss history and racism in their classrooms.
A recently adopted Johnston County school board policy says teachers can be disciplined or fired if they teach that American historical figures weren’t heroes, undermine the U.S. Constitution in lessons or say that racism is a permanent part of American life.
The Johnston County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted on Monday to turn over $7.9 million in school funding it had previously withheld until the school board passed a policy preventing what it called Critical Race Theory from being taught.
“They have met the objectives for which we intended for our students and for the good of our country,” said Commissioner Fred Smith.
School board members thanked the commissioners for providing the additional money.
“Our students and our staff thank you for what you do,” said school board chairman Todd Sutton. “We appreciate you all giving us this opportunity to work on this and come back and provide something to you that we can all work with moving forward.”
The changes required by commissioners have been called “extortion” and a “hostage standoff” by critics.
“Commissioners: In return for releasing to my children’s school system badly needed funds for raises for bus drivers and TAs, teacher pay supplements and the hiring of additional TAs for some of our low-performing schools, you forced the school board to enact a confusing policy that addresses a problem that does not exist,” Rick Mercier, a parent, said during public comments at Monday’s meeting.
“This fake controversy — and this overstepping of your authority — has caused Johnston County to once again look like a backward, unwelcoming holdover from a different era.”
Johnston is North Carolina’s seventh-largest school district, with more than 37,000 students.
Critical Race Theory questioned
Fights over Critical Race Theory and school masking have dominated school board meetings in North Carolina and nationally. Critics of masking and Critical Race Theory have held multiple rallies outside Johnston County school board meetings, including one in September led by U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn from Western North Carolina.
The September rally led to a segment on “The Daily Show” mocking the protesters.
Critical Race Theory, according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department, is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life.”
This view holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.
North Carolina schools have denied teaching Critical Race Theory. Instead, they’ve said they’re promoting equity and inclusion practices designed to help educate an increasingly diverse student enrollment. But critics say teachers and schools are promoting Marxist, anti-American values.
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson released a report in August that included complaints from parents across the state accusing teachers of trying to indoctrinate students.
Republicans at the national, state and local level have tried to regulate how racism and history are taught. In September, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed an anti-Critical Race Theory bill passed by Republican lawmakers that the governor said is based on “conspiracy-laden politics.”
School board makes changes to get money
In Johnston County, the all-Republican Board of Commissioners told the school board in June they would withhold $7.9 million in new school funding until a policy banning Critical Race Theory was approved.
Johnston school leaders have repeatedly denied that Critical Race Theory is being taught. But the board agreed Friday to modify board policy to get the money.
Among the requirements in the new policy:
▪ “The United States foundational documents shall not be undermined. No employee of Johnston County Schools will make any attempt to discredit the efforts made by all people using foundational documents for reform.”
▪ ”All people who contributed to American Society will be recognized and presented as reformists, innovators and heroes to our culture,” according to the policy.
▪ “No student or staff member shall be subjected to the notion that racism is a permanent component of American life. No unequal value shall be placed on any race, gender, religion, ethnicity, social class, or any other identity group.”
▪ “Any group who encourages students to act outside of the law, places this relationship in peril, and is not productive to the goal of Social Responsibility.”
Smith, the commissioner, said that the new district policy complies with the legislation vetoed by the governor.
A ‘$7.9 million policy’
School board member Ronald Johnson, who helped draft the initial version of what he called “a $7.9 million policy,” said the new wording will teach students trust, social responsibility, empathy, kindness and compassion and compliance with laws
“When we talk compliance with laws, we do not want to promote any ideology or behavior that puts our children in some kind of danger,” Johnson said. “No children should be encouraged to commit any crimes, that are defined as crimes, in the name of activism.”
Critics say that the policy doesn’t allow for teaching about how civil disobedience was used, such as during the Civil Rights Movement, to bring about change.
Johnson also said that the new policy will “provide that balance and fairness” when discussing difficult topics.
“All the while, we want to uphold, defend and promote the foundational documents that have made this country what it is,” Johnson said.
Teaching students the ‘greatness of America’
The commissioners’ actions drew praise and criticism Monday from speakers.
Erica Hall, a parent, said the commissioners caved into a “loud minority.” She said the new policy will force blindfolds and earmuffs to be placed on children when it comes to learning about history.
“Our children in this county deserve honesty and not whitewashed history that makes white people more comfortable and covers up the massacres and the injustices of the past,” Hall said.
But Michelle Antoine, a member of the group Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government, said the new policy will help ensure students learn “that America has served the world as the greatest country in God’s green earth.”
“These are American public schools,” Antoine said. “ We need to instill into our students the greatness of America, not forgetting the horrible history that goes along with it.”
Dale Lands, founder of Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government, said commissioners should keep in their “toolkit” the option of demanding that the school board make changes to get funding.
“You guys did your job as far as this county is concerned,” Lands told commissioners. “You held your counterparts at the school board accountable for the money that you’re handing over that we pay as taxpayers.”
But April Lee, president of the Johnston County Association of Educators, said that it was ethically wrong, if not legally wrong., what commissioners made the school board do.
“It is very sad that although some people are represented as far as being satisfied with this, I do not believe that it actually is something that most of the people here in Johnston County support,” Lee said.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 6:27 PM with the headline "NC school board gets $7.9 million, but only after it OKs limits on how race is taught."
