Still doubt that the $1.9 trillion “COVID-relief” package pushed through by President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats last year served as a massive cash bath for friends, allies and pet causes? Then look at a new report on plans by school brass in left-leaning states to use their funds to push elements of critical race theory. How is that COVID relief?
“Over $46 billion of American Rescue Plan funds have been allocated to implement critical race theory into the school curriculum of 13 states,” the report, by a conservative PAC, One Nation, says. That includes $15.1 billion in California, $9 billion in New York and $5.1 billion in Illinois.
Officials in the Empire State submitted an application, OK’d by the Biden administration last August, detailing plans to use “relief” funds to train staff on topics like “implicit bias and structural racism” and “facilitating difficult discussions about race.” And it stressed its commitment to “diversity, equity and inclusion in all NYS districts and schools.”
Diversity, (true) equity and inclusion are all fine things, of course — but in practice the DEI movement pushes the brute racializing of education; it’s basically another name for critical race theory.
California and other states had similar plans, including training staff in “anti-bias” strategies, “anti-racism” and “equity.”
In part, the states are following instructions from Team Biden: US Department of Education guidelines for using the American Rescue funds — supposedly to “address the impact of lost instructional time” due to COVID shutdowns — clearly advise that schools may need to take “additional steps” to support “families of color.” They cite a host of “reasons” minority kids might be reluctant to return to in-person, including “fears of xenophobic and racist harassment” and “school discipline policies.”
Let’s be blunt: That $1.9 trillion “rescue” plan, which included $350 billion for states (leaving most of them utterly flush with cash), was beyond overkill, coming after Uncle Sam had already shelled out $3 trillion in 2020 for COVID relief, and directed toward Democrats’ allies, like the education industry. Yet for schools to use it divide children by race, as the “anti-racist” approach does, makes matters even worse.
In short, Biden’s “stimulus” (as he also called it) is not just fueling inflation, it’s sowing division — with your taxpayer dollars.
* story by The New York Post
