WASHINGTON—Responding to the Biden administration’s proposed rule to prioritize grant funding for programs that include tenets of critical race theory and encourage discrimination based on racial identities, Heritage Foundation scholars submitted an official comment to the Federal Register, lambasting the proposed rule as enticing teachers to treat students differently based on skin color.

Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at Heritage, Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy, and Jonathan Butcher, Will Skillman fellow in education, urged the Department of Education to reject the idea that schoolchildren should be taught a radical racialist curriculum:

“The Department of Education should not advance official federal policies that support teaching students that their futures are determined by the color of their skin. Nor should the Department of Education fund programs that teach children that others should be stereotyped, judged and denounced based on their skin color, as critical race theory does. We urge the Department of Education to abandon this proposed rule.”

Writing in an open letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the three argued the proposed rule would financially encourage grant applicants to teach “revisionist views of American history, which are being contested by renowned historians across the political spectrum, and by no means represent a consensus view of actual events.” Among these is the unsupported belief that marginalization, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy remain systemic in America today.

The scholars noted that that proposed rule perverts the purpose of American history and civics education programs.

“By prioritizing grant funding for programs that include tenets of critical race theory generally, and ‘antiracism’ training sessions specifically, the proposed rule undermines the intent of the American History and Civics Education programs, transmits a toxic message to children of all backgrounds, and, when applied in practice, violates federal civil rights laws.”

Read the full letter here.