This article was originally posted 6/28/2021 on SUBV Facebook page
We are calling out this nonsense for what it is: another blatant attempt to distract voters from actual, critical issues impacting our BV Schools. We aren’t falling for it and we hope you won’t, either.
Blue Valley Schools is NOT teaching “Critical Race Theory.” CRT is NOT part of district curriculum, never has been, nor is there any effort to include it. CRT is an academic concept addressed in certain sectors of higher education, including law school. This is a NON-issue and BV-area senator Kellie Warren knows it.
Locally, state-wide, and nationally, there’s a sharp increase in false narratives surrounding CRT - with clearly racist undertones. The goal is to misinform and divide communities along racial and ethnic lines before important elections, including local school board elections. Blue Valley MUST stand united against such divisive efforts.
Kellie Warren has not posted a SINGLE thing on her political Facebook page since November 2020. And now she’s suddenly posting about “backlash” to a nonexistent problem? High school history and social studies courses here and across the country obviously discuss race issues - it’s an inextricable part of our nation’s history and current environment. Discussions around race and society will inevitably arise inside and outside of school – and those conversations can be multifaceted, difficult, awkward, even painful. But THAT’S NOT CRT. Nobody is teaching your BV K-12 student CRT. With ALL the challenges our district faces, including the ongoing impacts of YEARS of underfunding from Brownback/Colyer and the Kansas Legislature, there’s NO time for false narratives.
Perhaps Warren’s new focus on CRT is an effort to distract from her recent votes against our community’s schools. In April 2021, Warren voted once again to divert taxpayer dollars to private schools via voucher-like schemes. She voted YES on Senate Bill 175, radical legislation that was thankfully defeated through a bipartisan coalition of Republicans and Democrats in the Kansas Senate. SB 175 would have greatly expanded the state’s existing taxpayer-funded Private School Scholarships program AND added yet another program designed to send state resources to non-accredited private schools with zero accountability and a costly, unwieldy administrative process. Warren was also behind Senate Bill 40’s provision that allowed people to file complaints against BV Schools for their COVID-19 mitigation policies in the final weeks of the 2020-21 academic year. Thousands of dollars to respond to complaints filed (including one by JoCo Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara, which was dismissed by a judge) came directly out of Blue Valley’s general education fund – thus taking dollars away from students in the classroom.
As we look ahead to November school board elections, please do not be fooled by rhetoric from extreme members of ANY political party. Our school board races are supposed to be non-partisan. NO school board candidate should owe a political party – or a politician – for helping them get elected. NO political party should control how our children are educated. ALL candidates should be talking about the real issues we face here in Blue Valley - many of which are the result of a state legislature that does not value our BV Schools. The very last thing we need, after the past difficult year, is more divisiveness. We will not let dog-whistles like Warren’s stand unaddressed - and neither should you.
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