Missouri AG sues Springfield schools, alleging Sunshine violations over critical race theory docs
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Who is Eric Schmitt?
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has drawn national attention for lawsuits challenging COVID-19 rules and the Biden administration. But has he always been like this?
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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing Springfield Public Schools, accusing the district of violating the Missouri Sunshine Law when Schmitt’s office sought documents about race-related staff trainings and curricula.
Schmitt, who is running for U.S. Senate, is alleging 13 violations of the Sunshine Law, including charging excessive fees. The district quoted Schmitt’s office about $37,000 for a public records request it filed in October seeking a wide range of Springfield schools documents related to social justice, teachings on bias and racism and critical race theory.
Critical race theory is a 40-year-old body of scholarship examining the role of American institutions in perpetuating racial inequality. It is not taught in the vast majority of Missouri public school districts. But it has become a catch-all term this year for conservative activists who oppose new school curricula on diversity, equity and inclusion.
The furor has inspired attempts by Missouri lawmakers to ban schools from teaching something they don’t currently teach. Rep. Craig Fishel, a Springfield Republican, and the conservative Show-Me Institute also this year have sought critical race theory-related records from the Springfield district.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThe Bigger Picture: Critical Race Theory
Until recently, critical race theory was a body of advanced study discussed primarily in law schools beginning in the 1970s.
Developed by a group of Black legal scholars led by Harvard’s Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw, critical race theory is a response to what they perceived as the failure of the 1960s civil rights movement to bring about the kind of structural change it promised. CRT examines how racism and white supremacy remain embedded in essential institutions such as education, criminal justice, real estate and finance.
Nothing approaching the complexity of critical race theory is taught in most public elementary or secondary schools. Over the last couple of years, however, a network of conservative think tanks, activists and wealthy donors have seized on CRT and depicted it as an attempt by liberal educators to indoctrinate schoolchildren in an ideology of hatred for the U.S.
CRT has evolved into an umbrella term to denounce any attempt by schools to introduce more context to the uglier chapters of American history, such as slavery, Jim Crow and the treatment of Indigenous people. This distortion has spawned dozens of bills in state legislatures to eliminate an essentially nonexistent threat.
The lawsuit marks the first significant entry of a statewide Missouri official into the debate. Gov. Mike Parson has said the issue “has no business being taught in Missouri classrooms,” but deferred to local districts t make curriculum decisions.
This year, Republican Glenn Youngkin made parental dissatisfaction with public schools, including the debate over critical race theory, part of his message in his upset victory in the Virginia governor’s race.
Schmitt, like Youngkin, is using the consulting firm led by Republican strategist Jeff Roe.
Most public schools in Missouri reported to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education this summer that they do not teach critical race theory. Kansas City Public Schools used a curriculum based on The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, an examination of slavery, anti-Black racism and its far-reaching impact on American society. Conservatives frequently include it in their opposition to critical race theory.
Schmitt argues in his lawsuit that Springfield Public Schools is hiding the extent to which it includes critical race theory in teacher training materials and curricula.
He cites 2020 staff training presentations that include slides on “overt” and “covert” examples of white supremacy and an equity presentation for students in a career-readiness program that asked pupils to “analyze your identity and how it influences your beliefs, behaviors and experiences.”
“I will always fight for parents’ rights to know exactly what schools are teaching their children,” Schmitt said in a news release.
In a statement, Springfield Public Schools spokesman Stephen Hall said both Schmitt’s and Fishel’s public records requests were “overly broad” and required “hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of district staff time to search and review thousands of pages of documents.”
He said the district teaches “equity, not CRT.”
“SPS is disappointed by the Attorney General’s decision to use the power of his office to attack public education,” Hall said. “Any deliberate misrepresentation of the district’s work by elected officials must end. These efforts represent a loud, divisive, and misguided distraction.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 4:15 PM.
