The Politics of Anti-CRT (Critical Race Theory) and Anti-Equity Policy and the Implications for District Leadership

• In Event: The Political Polarization of Educational Politics and Its Implications for Democratic Education

Abstract

In the runup to the U.S. 2022 midterm elections, Republicans brought their fight to regain control of Congress to school districts across the country. Deploying a national disinformation campaign regarding how issues of race and racism are taught in K-12 public schools, astroturf conservative advocacy organizations (which maintain a façade of grassroots support to camouflage their elite origins and backing) mobilized activists to descend on school board meetings and upend school board elections nationwide demanding an end to indoctrination of children with so-called critical race theory (CRT). The upshot has been a chilling effect on educators and a loss of instruction on important topics for a substantial proportion of US students (Pollock et al., 2022). The purpose of this descriptive, conceptual paper is to portray and analyze the national campaign against CRT and equity in schools, how it played out on the state and local levels, and its implications for superintendents and school board members leading for equity. Drawing from an emerging body of literature on the anti-CRT campaign (Hodge et al., 2022; López et al., 2021; Malin & Lubienski, 2022; Pollock et al., 2022; White et al., 2023), along with literature on district-level leadership for equity and social justice (Diem et al., 2016; Radd et. al., 2021; Rivera-McCutchen, 2014; Sampson, 2019; Trujillo & Douglass Horsford, 2021; Turner, 2020), and on the politics and paradox of race in education leadership and reform (Douglass Horsford, 2014, 2018; Douglass Horsford et al., 2019), we explore how the national agenda to advance anti-CRT and anti-equity education policy has impacted education leadership at the district level. We use critical policy analysis (CPA) (Douglass Horsford et al., 2019) to frame this paper and organize our analysis of the national disinformation campaign including policy documents, blog posts, media coverage, and related materials that illustrate its impact. This approach draws attention to the ecosystem of organizations fomenting conflict in the realms of discourse and ideology through the deft use of spectacle and emotion to manufacture crisis, resulting in elevation of a subset of white perspectives and further marginalization of students and parents of color. We conclude with a discussion of how superintendents and school board members committed to equity leadership must understand how the politics of race and effective use of political spectacle can undermine local efforts to advance equity and social justice in schools. To sustain such efforts, we suggest district leaders must ground their leadership in a moral commitment to collective well-being as a goal of schooling while practicing clear communication and authentic community engagement around shared values. In addition, we highlight the far-reaching implications of this polarizing political initiative for the future of democratic, public education in the US. By offering an alternative to a traditional policy analysis, this paper contributes a novel, inclusive perspective to the emerging scholarship on this ongoing, unfolding situation.

Authors

• Ann LoBue, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sonya Douglass, Teachers College, Columbia University