WASHINGTON—Following former President Trump’s op-ed rebuking efforts to force students and teachers to affirm critical race theory, The Heritage Foundation scholars Lindsey Burke, Jonathan Butcher, and Mike Gonzalez offered the following response:

"President Trump is right to mark his return to the public policy arena by writing an op-ed that directly addresses critical race theory’s racial discrimination and proposes a plan on how to combat it. His support for parents pushing back against a philosophy that compels their children to believe they or others should be stereotyped or denounced based on skin color or other immutable characteristics comes not a moment too soon. And President Trump is correct to point out that policymakers have a role to play in rejecting critical race theory’s racial prejudice in the K-12 classroom.

"That includes requiring public school officials to make public school K–12 curricular materials available to taxpayers and families, preventing taxpayer money being spent on so-called anti-bias training, and offering alternatives to colleges of education so that would-be teachers do not have to accept training in critical theory’s racial bias in order to enter the classroom. And President Trump is right to point out that taxpayers should not be on the hook for $1 billion in new federal spending on civics, as it is not the appropriate role of the federal government to engage in curriculum.

"One of the most important tools for combatting critical theory’s prejudice in the classroom is giving families control of where, and what, their children learn. Ultimately, as Attorney General Barr pointed out in a major keynote address, the spread of the biased CRT ideology in our classrooms and other areas of our lives under the Biden-Harris administration demonstrates that it has become a state ideology that parents have a right to reject. This demonstrates once again that public education funding must be student centered and portable to a school of choice. CRT’s discrimination, like COVID, has made it clear that America needs school choice now."

Heritage Foundation experts are exposing the truth about critical race theory and ways to combat it. Find more research and resources at heritage.org/crt.