Earlier this year, Fox News published a bombshell report using research compiled by One Nation showing that over $44.3 billion of American Rescue Plan funds have been allocated to implement critical race theory into the school curriculum of 12 states. Today, One Nation is publishing a full research report detailing the effort in at least 12 states pushing efforts to indoctrinate children in public schools.
READ: One Nation report on ARP funds pushing CRT in schools
According to the research compiled by One Nation, 12 states have been allocated ARP funds under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) – billed as a fund to help schools safely reopen after the pandemic – to instead introduce CRT-based curricula into local schools. The states – and the amounts they received – are as follows:
- California: $15.1 billion
- New York: $9 billion
- Illinois: $5.1 billion
- Michigan: $3.7 billion
- New Jersey: $2.8 billion
- Washington: $1.9 billion
- Massachusetts: $1.8 billion
- Minnesota: $1.3 billion
- Connecticut: $1.1 billion
- Nevada: $1.1 billion
- Oregon: $1.1 billion
- Rhode Island: $415.1 million
The report concludes: “ARP ESSER funding was explicitly sold to the American people as emergency COVID relief. President Biden and his Congressional allies pleaded for it as ‘a matter of life and death,’ but the receipts prove that was just a performative talking point. Throughout the entire process, they intentionally and deliberately misled the public. They claimed to need the money for health and safety reasons so that schools could reopen, not to force their Marxist curriculum into schools across the country… Congress should immediately work to claw back the funding and repurpose it for something useful.”
In an August 2021 report, President Biden’s Department of Education encouraged state and local school authorities to address the “reasons families of color have cited for not returning to in-person learning,” such as “fears of xenophobic and racist harassment” and to “implement strategies designed for systemic change at the local and school level.” States across the country responded by submitting plans that would use ARP funding to push an ideological agenda in schools:
- The California DOE consulted with two outside groups—Results for America and Education Research Strategies—that are publicly urging state and local governments to use ARP funding to implement CRT-based curricula.
- The Corning-Painted Post School District in New York allocated $130,000 from ARP ESSER to pay for its contract with the Equity Collaborative, a firm that helps schools implement CRT.
- Buffalo Public Schools allocated $1.2 million from ARP for its Office of Culturally & Linguistically Responsive Initiatives to implement an “Emancipation Curriculum” that is focused on anti-racism, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the destruction of the nuclear family.
- Chicago Public Schools allocated $32 million from ARP ESSER to advance its CRT-based “comprehensive, culturally responsive universal curriculum.”
- The Michigan DOE planned to spend ARP funds on a program at the Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute that “challenges Whiteness and hegemonic epistemologies in school,” encourages educators to “unlearn and then rethink” traditional school policies, and teaches them to “translate histories of oppression…into viable and sustainable, educational leadership practice.”
- Seattle Public Schools’ plan was “guided by” the CRT tenets of “anti-racism” and “cultural responsiveness.” SPS is also working with Panorama Education, a company that promotes CRT and provides surveys to schools that ask students (PK-12) about inappropriate topics for younger students, including sexuality and drugs.
- Minneapolis Public Schools allocated $600,000 from ARP to implement its “anti-bias curriculum.”
- The Oregon DOE will spend its ARP funds “to apply an equity-informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive stance to promote culturally sustaining and revitalizing educational systems that support every child.” For instance, part of the funding will be used to promote programs like the Racial Justice Institute, which provides “anti-racist communities of practice for educational leaders.”
- The Nevada DOE consulted with the National Equity Project “to equip educators to respond to system racism and inequities.” NEP teaches CRT and develops educators into “rebel leaders” who will “abolish unjust systems and catalyze positive change.”
- The Rhode Island DOE consulted with a group whose leader is involved with Haus of Glitter, a “queer, feminist, Black indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) collective.” Rhode Island also partnered with the Providence After School Alliance, which offers programs for students that are “centered around environmental activism and social justice.”
Congressional liberals billed passage of the ARP as “quite literally a matter of life and death,” according to Senator Raphael Warnock. However, recent reporting by the Associated Press and other outlets has demonstrated the ARP is rife with waste, including billions for luxury hotels, ski slopes, and ballpark renovations. One Nation’s research further exposes the ARP as a boondoggle packed full with ideological wish list items that have little or nothing to do with fighting the pandemic.
One Nation President Steven Law appeared on “Fox & Friends” to discuss One Nation’s research, saying: “They said that they were going to use it to open schools, instead they’re using it to close children’s minds. It’s really a shame. I think parents are going to be concerned about it. It’s a classic bait and switch that you see in Washington where the politicians come together and say we’re going to do this, it’s going to be good for the country, and we’ve got to do it now. And it’s so urgent that we’re not going to actually look very deeply at what’s in it. Well now that we look at it we’re quite concerned about it and I think taxpayers should be as well.”