Biden administration Education Secretary Miguel Cardona attacked anti-CRT legislation and said that schools must “control the narrative” and teach the “correct history.”
On Thursday, Cardona spoke at the NewSchools Summit, with Frances Messano, President of the NewSchools Venture Fund. Messano brought up to Cardano that a number of state legislatures are propsing “a range of bills restricting what educators can teach or say in the classroom.”
Messano argued that this legislation, which likely included Florida’s anti-grooming bill, and other legislation designed to stop the teaching of anti-white Critical Race Theory in classrooms, prevented “the accurate teaching of history… and discussions about race, gender identity, and our sexuality.”
Secretary Cardona argued that the legislation being discussed was only designed to create “division” in the education system and gain political points. Cardona said that educators therefore must “control the narrative of what we’re doing in our classrooms to teach the correct history, and make sure all students feel welcomed in our schools.”
Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona: We must "control the narrative" on teaching the "correct history" in classrooms pic.twitter.com/TxSLrQ40aE
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 5, 2022
Given the lack of specific legislation discussed by Cardona and Messano, it is unclear exactly what the correct or incorrect history would be. However, criticism of anti-CRT legislation from the left has claimed that it would force teachers to not acknowledge past racism when discussing American history.
Unsurprisingly, the event at which Cardona spoke mostly included speakers of a leftist persuasion, with other speakers including Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan, who donated millions of dollars to help illegal immigrants pay college tuition, former Obama advisor Bartunde Thurston, an anti-racist comedian, and Shannon Watts, founder of anti-gun group Moms Demand Action.
Only 4 out of the 43 speakers advertised at the conference appeared to be white men. Topics of talks included how schools could become “engines of democracy,” how students could demand “educational equity,” and how teachers can push for further restrictive gun legislation.
In 2006, NewSchools Venture Fund, which puts on the summit, received $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
