{"id":15952,"date":"2021-05-05T02:39:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T02:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15952"},"modified":"2021-05-05T19:26:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T19:26:52","slug":"defund-the-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/05\/defund-the-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Defund The\u2026 Schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trustees to examine what new anti-racism law means to BCSD<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Idaho State Representative Priscilla Giddings was a proponent of the new state law aimed at abolishing Critical Race Theory in schools. Photo credit: Idaho State Legislature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new state law proponents say is aimed at \u201cstopping the spread of anti-white racist ideology being taught to the youth in our Idaho public education institutions\u201d will become the topic of discussion at future school board meetings, Blaine County School District board president Keith Roark said.<\/p>\n

The bill, which Governor Brad Little signed into law last week, does not outright ban the teaching of what\u2019s known as Critical Race Theory. But it does outlaw what the legal text describes as \u201ccertain tenets\u201d of the controversial theory, which can \u201cexacerbate and inflame divisions on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other criteria in ways contrary to the unity of the nation and the well-being of the state of Idaho and its citizens.\u201d The text of the bill does not state what those tenets are.<\/p>\n

Roark said the topic will likely be discussed at the May and\/or June school board meetings, but that consultations with and from administrative staff, department heads, and the district\u2019s attorney need to take place next, before any formal recommendation can be brought to the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is a solution in search of a problem,\u201d Roark said regarding the new law.<\/p>\n

Roark expressed frustration that the CRT matter took focus away from other educational matters lawmakers were slated to address and even held up legislation on teacher pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no wonder why we\u2019re so far down the list\u201d when it comes to educational funding, Roark added.<\/p>\n

The new law, however, figures to be greeted more warmly for some. On April 27, the Blaine County Republican Women held its general meeting where the featured speaker was Idaho State Representative Priscilla Giddings, a major proponent of the bill. A press release for the meeting read as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of the legislature crafting higher education budgets, Idaho State Representative Priscilla Giddings recently raised concern with progressive indoctrination efforts in Idaho schools. She is on the frontlines of stopping this curriculum from being put into Idaho\u2019s education system. She has proposed cutting college and university budgets by more than $18 million to defund such efforts. Don\u2019t miss this opportunity to listen to Representative Giddings on her efforts to Expose and Defund Critical Race Theory in all levels of Idaho\u2019s schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Race To Nowhere<\/b><\/p>\n

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, \u201cCritical race theory (CRT) was officially organized in 1989, at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory, though its intellectual origins go back much farther, to the 1960s and \u201970s. Its immediate precursor was the critical legal studies (CLS) movement, which dedicated itself to examining how the law and legal institutions serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and marginalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s the theory? Again, according to Britannica, it is an \u201cintellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category \u2026\u201d And, if you think about characteristics and categories germaine to the continuation of a species, that\u2019s objectively correct. To put it bluntly: If you can procreate with it, you\u2019re the same as it.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where CRT triggers sensitivities \u2026 Britannica goes on to say that race categories are \u201cused to oppress and exploit people of colour.\u201d And then here\u2019s where CRT begins to burn the flag in some people\u2019s eyes \u2026 \u201cCritical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the Source<\/b><\/p>\n

How each person\u2014from teacher and staff to student and parent\u2014feel about the new law and react to the new law remains to be seen. What\u2019s set in stone, however, are the actual words of the actual law, which can be read here: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/zr783xkz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trustees to examine what new anti-racism law means to BCSD By Eric Valentine The new state law proponents say is aimed at \u201cstopping the spread of anti-white racist ideology being taught to the youth in our Idaho public education institutions\u201d will become the topic of discussion at future school board meetings, Blaine County School District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,74,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blaine-county","8":"category-education","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15955,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15952\/revisions\/15955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}