Teacher courses promoting critical race theory were funded by Pandemic Relief

By Brendan Clarey (The Center Square)

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer used federal pandemic relief funds to create virtual classes for teachers on anti-racism and social justice, which encouraged teachers to engage with sources espousing critical race theory.

The CARES Act of 2020 provided funds that governors could allocate to education-related entities through the Governor’s Education Emergency Relief Fund (GEER). Whitmer and state officials have allocated $1.4 million to Michigan State University College of Education, the University of Michigan School of Education and Michigan Virtual to create professional learning modules for teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade.

According to an email from MSU’s K-12 Outreach Office sent Monday, educators can take a “newly relaunched” course developed in partnership with MSU’s School of Educators for free.

Republican lawmakers have already introduced legislation in the Michigan Legislature that would ban the teaching of critical race theory in classrooms. Other states have passed laws that to forbid his teaching.

How the program was funded has come under scrutiny from federal watchdogs. The Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General said in a report released in September that the state could not support the process used to select Michigan Virtual, MSU, and UM to develop the modules.

“The purpose of the program was to train teachers on how to implement the professional learning standards for teachers developed by the Governor’s Advisory Council on Education,” said a report from the Office of the Inspector General of Education. US Department of Education, which investigated how federal money was spent by the state.

The Governor’s Advisory Council on Education was created by Governor Gretchen Whitmer by executive order in 2019, and she handpicked the 15 members of the public who sit on it. She approved giving the money to Michigan Virtual, MSU and UM to expand professional learning programs for teachers and other entities, according to the federal oversight report.

Courses include “Teaching and Leadership Against Racism and Social Justice” and “Trauma-Informed Anti-Racist Practice in Preschool-12th Grade Education”, “Social-Emotional Learning: Elaborations on Equity “, “Social-emotional learning: evaluation mechanisms” and 11 others.

The Anti-Racism and Social Justice Teaching and Leadership module developed with MSU staff aims to teach educators how to view racism and privilege and how it plays out in school and society, analyze theoretical frameworks for teaching anti-racism and social justice, recognizing the oppression of the system and applying strategies to dismantle it, and examining how to connect with staff and communities.

The material for this course asked teachers how they could respond to a classroom situation in the most anti-racist way possible.

This course related to materials including a video by Bettina Love explaining “spiritual murder” and its explicit origin in critical race theory.

“I really wanted to put the language and take it out of critical race theory, and put it into education to say this is what’s happening in our schools,” Love said in the video that educators were to see it as part of the course and apply what they learn to their own schools.

Another Resource cited this key principle of critical judgment: “I will take responsibility for what I do not directly control – structural racism, systemic oppression and all forms of prejudice – and I will seek to influence transformative change within seemingly entrenched systems.”

Related: Whitmer says her COVID restrictions in hindsight ‘don’t make much sense’

The second module developed in collaboration with UM aims to increase educators’ “awareness of trauma and oppression” and help them “individually and collectively imagine ways to disrupt sources of oppression and harm in order to transform classrooms and schools, facilitate learning and well-being”. -to be students holistically.

One of the required readings for this course was an article by healing justice trainer Candice Valenzuela, who argued that educators need to examine unresolved historical trauma.

“Trauma-informed training cannot be facilitated by anyone who has not confronted the generational and historical trauma of racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, ableism and capitalism within their own body, its communities and practices,” writes Valenzuela. “We must not only focus on the trauma of youth of color, but also ‘look higher’ on the traumatic implications of white dominant society’s historical narcissism, historical amnesia, and colonialist perpetration of violence. “

Other resources included in both modules offered less controversial perspectives on how educators and administrators can assess their practices to help students who have suffered traumatic experiences or approach marginalized communities with empathy while pursuing conversations about race and racism.

For example, in the Anti-Racism module scenarios, respondents were encouraged to find ways to deal with a racist incident in a classroom or to talk to a student who was wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt in an attempt to help students understand that racism is not acceptable and that their actions affect those around them.

Regardless, the federal education watchdog criticized how the state allocated federal funds to entities that developed the modules.

“Congress intended the GEER grant to be an emergency appropriation to address coronavirus-related disruptions and support a state’s ability to continue to provide educational services to students and support the continued functionality of [local educational agencies and institutions of higher education]says the OIG report.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made the decision to award funds to the four entities without using “selection criteria” or including the “names of all entities that were evaluated and did not document the ‘assessment of the 14 external requests’ as it should be.

Related: Taxpayers pay $44,117 for Whitmer’s trip to Davos

The state never provided information about other entities that applied for the grants available to the agency, according to the report.

“Michigan did not maintain sufficient documentation regarding its decisions to award funds to one of the selected education-related entities and not to award funds to other entities that submitted grant applications. GEER,” the report said.

In 2021, The Center Square reported that federal taxpayers paid millions for a critical race theory program for future educators, called RISE, which received funding in 2016.

This program gave student teachers a $5,000 stipend and encouraged participants to use critical race theory as a way to assess teacher quality, according to The Center Square.

Syndicated with permission from The central square.