Protestors have descended on public school board meetings throughout Ohio to protest critical race theory – a concept taught in graduate schools that explores racism in history and policy. The head of the state’s largest teacher union says there’s a lot of misinformation out there about it and he wants to set the record straight.
Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro says he doesn’t know of a single K-12 public school in Ohio that is teaching critical race theory.
“It’s not a K-12 curriculum. Critical race theory is a theory that comes out of higher education, mostly out of the realm of law, that looks at the impact of inequity and racism on the law and how that has had an impact on opportunities for students throughout the years. We see that in the form of segregation and redlining and things like that has a direct impact on schools but that’s not part of our curriculum,” DiMauro says.
DiMauro says K-12 schools in Ohio teach a curriculum set by the state. He says the protests over critical race theory are part of a culture war laid out in a national, politically motivated, Republican agenda against public schools.