TOPEKA — A state education official told lawmakers Wednesday they need to “stop calling everything under the sun” critical race theory if they want to work together to improve student achievement.
Ann Mah, a Democrat on the Kansas State Board of Education and former state representative, clashed with Republicans during a hearing on how CRT may be infiltrating classrooms in public schools. Mah said CRT has been co-opted for any complaint relating to public schools.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh my God, they mentioned race, so it must be CRT.’ No, you need to really look at it,” Mah said. “CRT is a graduate level study of institutional racism in the legal system. It has nothing to do with sex. It is what it is. And we’re not teaching it. We are doing, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion. We’re doing social emotional growth. We’re not teaching graduate level legal courses.”