Governor Jeff Landry (R-LA) signed an executive order banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) from K-12 public schools.
According to a press release for the order, CRT includes “divisive teachings that instruct students to view life through the lens of race and victimhood.”
Students should be learning about “American exceptionalism and the principles embodied in State and Federal Constitutions of the United States of America that recognize the equal value of every individual,” it says.
Landry said in a statement that the executive order is a “much-needed sigh of relief for parents and students across our state, especially as kids are heading back to school.”
“Teaching children that they are currently or destined to be oppressed or to be an oppressor based on their race and origin is wrong and has no place in our Louisiana classrooms,” he explained. “I am confident that under Dr. Brumley’s leadership our education system will continue to head in the right direction, prioritizing American values and common-sense teachings.”
Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told the Louisiana Illuminator that students are “best served with a clear focus on reading, math, meaningful high school experiences, elevating the teaching profession, and expanding educational freedom for families.”
The executive order says that CRT and its “progeny instruct students to view the world through the lens of race and presume some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive and that some students are victims,” concepts that are “antithetical to America’s founding ideals of liberty, justice, equality, opportunity, and unity among its people.”
