Fight over Critical Race Theory really about breaking teachers' unions

Teachers' wages in red states like South Dakota surf the bottom because Republicans are Balkanizing education amid a fight over Critical Race Theory.

But, even the president of the Sioux Falls school board who is married to the son of a former Republican governor is resisting moves by Governor Kristi Noem to whitewash the attempted eradication of Indigenous Americans from South Dakota. One reason Republicans don't like Common Core history standards is that the curriculum long-ignored by textbooks includes genocide and near-extermination of American Indians by European colonialism. 

In South Dakota white people steal money slated for American Indian education and murder their families when the jig is up then place a complicit attorney general at the head of the investigation. Native journalist, Tim Giago has even called for a boycott of South Dakota.

Despite a University of South Dakota study that shows the state's electorate is far less nuts than the legislature is the extreme white wing of the Republican Party still wants to rewrite history. 

During the height of the pandemic Earth hating Republicans wanted to ditch masks and get kids back into schools. But most now even admit they want to end social studies and turn students into mindless wage slaves. 

The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less consensus on what the government’s role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile. The conservative American Legion, beginning in the 1930s, sought to rid schools of progressive-minded textbooks that encouraged students to consider economic inequality; two decades later the John Birch Society raised similar criticisms about school materials. As with CRT criticisms, the fear was that students would be somehow harmed by exposure to these ideas. [What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?]

Yes, in red states police unions get the cash and teachers' unions get the shaft. 

Some school boards, teachers’ unions, and history education groups have already voiced opposition to these new laws. In Oklahoma City, the school board voted to formally disavow the state’s law. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, set up to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of the event this year, removed Oklahoma’s Gov. Kevin Stitt from the group last week, after he signed the bill into law. [Four States Have Placed Legal Limits on How Teachers Can Discuss Race. More May Follow]

A third of qualified teaching grads leave South Dakota while the remainder struggle with certification. 

Learn more about the history of race theory at NPR's Fresh Air.

Photo: Republican former South Dakota Governor Denny Daugaard describes Melody Schopp's breast implants.

The Lower Brule Nation has joined the fight against the desecration of the sacred Black Hills. pic.twitter.com/N1DyntaUBc

— interested party (@larry_kurtz) May 25, 2021