Boise Mayor Lauren McLean signed a resolution in support of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public K-12 education.
McLean has chosen to align herself with mayors from cities that were ravaged and shattered by violent riots during 2020. The resolution is co-sponsored by Ted Wheeler (Portland, OR), Greg Fischer (Louisville, KY), and Lori E. Lightfoot (Chicago, IL).
The resolution, adopted at the United State Conference of Mayors 89th Annual Meeting, states that McLean and the co-sponsors support implementing CRT’s racial discrimination in public school curriclum and programming. The resolution argues that all academic achievement gaps are evidence of racial discrimination and proposes CRT in education as the cure rather than higher standards, content mastery in teacher training, or other education innovations.
CRT makes race the lens through which its proponents analyze all aspects of American life. The theory is radically skeptical of neutral principles of constitutional law and the concepts of freedom, color blindness, and equality. CRT is racial discrimination. Theorists argue America is systemically racist despite the abolition of slavery, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, government agencies created to stop and prosecute racist acts, and the enormous opportunity this country offers to every individual regardless of skin color.
Public officials, including the president of the State Board of Education and members of the Coeur d’Alene school board, have argued that CRT is not in Idaho schools. At least McLean is honest in her belief that Idaho’s public K-12 schools should teach and promote CRT.
The Boise mayor’s position, though, violates Idaho’s new law that prohibits compelling students to adopt the divisive tenets of CRT in public education institutions.
House Bill 377 states, “No public institution of higher education, school district, or public school, including a public charter school, shall direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm … that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color or national origin is inherently superior or inferior; that individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color or national origin.” It also bars educational institutions from using public money to compel students to adopt the divisive tenets of CRT.
McLean has made herself clear — she is hostile to the First Amendment and the Civil Rights Act, both of which are rejected by CRT and protected by Idaho’s new law.
The Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen exposed these racially biased and unconstitutional principles of CRT in an opinion he issued in May. He wrote, “Committing racial discrimination in the name of ending racial discrimination is both illogical and illegal. It goes against the exceptional principles on which our nation was founded and has no place in our state.
“Montana law does not tolerate schools, other government entities, or employers implementing CRT and antiracist programming in a way that treats individuals differently on the basis of race or that creates a racially hostile environment.”
In the face of hostility to neutral principles of constitutional order from the mayor of Idaho’s largest city, leaders need to stop turning a blind eye to the greatest threat facing our education system.
Public officials must call CRT what it is — racial discrimination — and reject it entirely. Parents, however, should not wait for the government to act. Instead, they should protect their children from this state-sponsored racism by removing their children from corrupt school districts before further damage is done.
McLean wants to transform Idaho from a state where mutual toleration, happiness, and the free exchange of ideas are the norm to a state where racism is the norm. The question is: Will the people of Idaho let her?
