Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) announced his plan Friday morning to ban the teaching of critical race theory in publicly funded state colleges and universities.
In a statement delivered from his office on Thursday, Patrick said during the upcoming 88th Legislative Session he plans to introduce legislation that bans the teaching of critical race theory at state-funded schools and change the rules around tenure for faculty.
Patrick proposed removing tenure for new hires and changing the review period for those who have tenure from every six years to annually. Patrick said he wants to add language to the education code that says tenure can be revoked if good cause is present and that teaching critical race theory would be prima facie evidence of good cause.
“We’re not going to allow a handful of professors who do not represent the entire group to teach and indoctrinate students with critcial race theory, that we are inherently racist as a nation,” Patrick said. “We’re not going to allow it to happen. We will change those rules.”
Patrick said the “woke left just continues to go too far” after news surfaced earlier this week that the University of Texas at Austin’s Faculty Council passed a resolution supporting the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
The Austin American-Statesman reported UT Faculty Council passed a resolution supporting the freedom to teach critical race theory, Patrick tweeted his intent to use legislation to prevent it from being taught at the university level.
Patrick’s tweet also caused concern among some UT faculty who questioned the purpose of the university think-tank referenced by the lieutenant governor in his tweet — the Liberty Institute. Faculty members have asked the university for clarification on the purpose of the institute in response.
What is Critical Race Theory?
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. The architects of the theory argue that the United States was founded on the theft of land and labor and that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race. Proponents also believe race is culturally invented, not biological. Read more about CRT here.
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