What Does it Mean to “Dismantle” Public Education? Intentional Misinformation and Moral Panic Campaigns
Estimated Read Time: 16 minutes
The national extremist agenda to dismantle public education has been all over national news as it takes a stronghold in school districts across the country. Here in Douglas County, public education advocates have been fighting it since the first reformers took office on the school board in 2009, and we are facing it again today. So, what does “dismantling public education” really mean?
As far back as the 1920s, the United States has a long history of attacking public education. Some of the more blatant include educational gag orders and government attempts to limit teaching and learning, which we covered in our blog, “Book Banning and Educational Gag Orders,” as well as segregated schools and voucher programs.
So why attack public education? What is the goal?
Privatize education by eroding the financial support for public schools
Use public tax dollars to promote Christianity in schools
Keep school districts racially, and socio-economically segregated
Inhibit civic discourse by creating a narrative about the United States that sanitizes our complex and nuanced history
Attacking our public education system harms our children, our communities and our entire nation. As you read through this series, please ask yourself a few questions: Who benefits from dismantling public education? Who is the most harmed by dismantling our public education system? And what can you do to support public education on a local, state, and national level?
In Part I of “What does it mean to “dismantle” public education?” Redirecting Funds, Charter Schools, and Vouchers, we examined financial reallocation at the state level and the relationship of charter schools and vouchers in public school systems. Part 2, Making Educators and Unions the Bad Guys, examined the organized effort to disparage our educators and villainize them when they organize through unions to advocate for better pay and working conditions.
In the last entry, we examined some of the narratives that misinformation has used to villainize teachers. In this blog entry, we unpack those misinformation and moral panic campaigns in further depth.
Lighting a Match
For the past two years, it hasn’t taken much to set off a perceived moral panic in the United States. Perceived moral panics are intentional campaigns to create fear about certain groups of people, often rooted in harmful stereotypes and tropes. Much like the Southern Strategy in the 1960s was used to gain political support by appealing to racist ideas in the United States to create fear about potential culture change, such as civil rights for Black people, this modern day misinformation campaign is designed to create fear around the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. It panders to the narrative that white, cisgender Americans should feel badly about themselves when recognizing that these communities deserve an accurate and inclusive education and to be treated with dignity and respect. “Scapegoating marginalized communities is an American tradition, no matter how hysterical the accusation,” says Kyle Casey Chu, writer and author, who was targeted by the Proud Boys extremist group.
Coded language is often used for quick media soundbites that can then be regurgitated on social media. Terms that are intended to incite fear and panic about a perceived loss of “the way things have always been.” Another key component of this strategy is then playing mental gymnastics when called out on creating misinformation or the outright harm created to a specific group of people. This includes pretending not to have played any role in the ensuing panic or making false claims of trying to “protect children.”
The result of this perceived moral panic is the dehumanization of nonwhite, cisgender communities and an increased risk of violence toward BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities and those who support them. Through FOX News Host, Tucker Carlson has even suggested violence on teachers who discuss gender identity, again, falsely equating conversations about gender identity with sexual content.
We will be examining three of the most “popular” moral panic narratives of the last two years: Critical Race Theory, “Woke Culture,” and “Grooming,” what these narratives look like and how they create harm.
Critical Race Theory (CRT)
Critical Race Theory is probably the misinformation campaign that we are the most familiar with, and that is by design. During a three-and-half-month period of time in 2021, CRT was mentioned more than 1,900 times on FOX News. We will be spending a lot of time on this particular narrative as it had a significant impact on last year’s school board election, and it is frequently pushed by our new majority board members.
First things first, let’s define Critical Race Theory, as many people still do not understand it, due to the depth of this misinformation campaign. In its most simplistic definition, Critical Race Theory is a graduate level framework defined by Kimberlee Crenshaw, law professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School. Crenshaw is widely credited with coining the term:
“It is a way of seeing, attending to, accounting for, tracing and analyzing the ways that race is produced, the ways that racial inequality is facilitated, and the ways that our history has created these inequalities that now can be almost effortlessly reproduced unless we attend to the existence of these inequalities.”
Mari Matsuda, a law professor at the University of Hawaii, who was an early developer of Critical RaceTheory, adds, “For me, critical race theory is a method that takes the lived experience of racism seriously, using history and social reality to explain how racism operates in American law and culture, toward the end of eliminating the harmful effects of racism and bringing about a just and healthy world for all.”
Those definitions probably do not sound like what you may have heard on the campaign trail, at BOE meetings, and in the media; and that is completely intentional.
Christopher Rufo, the self-proclaimed architect of the anti-CRT rallying cry embraced by conservatives, and advisor of FAIR, appeared on FOX News in 2020, making the false claim that “Critical Race Theory has pervaded every aspect of the federal government.” That statement caught the attention of then President Trump, who took immediate action by canceling all federal-government-sponsored diversity training with an executive order .Biden rescinded the order his first day in office, but the damage had already been done.
The misinformation of this particular narrative also falsely conflates CRT with a variety of other terms, such as equity, diversity, inclusion, accurate history, etc. Ironically, Rufo serves on the advisory board for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), which speaks volumes to the intent behind the words that FAIR uses to describe its mission as “...dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding and humanity.”
The moral panic created from the misinformation about CRT can look like the following false narratives that white people are made to be afraid of “reverse racism” (which doesn’t exist). It also claims that naming racism or other forms of oppression results in:
A “victim mentality”
People taught to “hate other people”
Judging people by their “immutable characteristics” and not seeing them as individuals
We have seen this coded language used regularly by our majority members, both as candidates and as sworn-in directors. As school board candidates, coded language was used in a FOX News piece to stoke fear as Mike Peterson discussed “divisive policies,” and Kaylee Winegar talked about “adult ideologies and personal politics.” The label on the video that accompanies the interview even names the agenda of the Kids First Slate: “Colorado school board candidates push to disrupt district's equity plan.” This was intentional misinformation used to garner votes for the school board election. Colorado House District 4 Representative Ken Buck, who is up for re-election this year (and endorsed by Peterson), even introduced bills in 2020 and 2021, proposing federal funds be banned from being used to teach the 1619 Project in K-12 schools or school districts.
A post-election interview with FOX News, had newly elected DCSD BoE members continuing to push this false narrative. Peterson said this about DCSD’s Gemini Training, which had widespread support from attendees, "I saw a professional development session for over 900 employees that just smacked of elements of CRT, oppressor victim groups, intersectional voices being more valid based on the identity of the speaker and not based on the virtue of the arguments.”
The recently released training binders used by new BoE majority members at an early November 2021 retreat in Estes Park had references to CRT on pages 126-129 (photos of tweets and the anti-Critical Race Theory Resolution from Colorado Springs District 49). Were these meant to serve as guidance for the new board members to continue the ruse of “critical race theory” being taught in our schools?
The misinformation stokes fear and outrage in parents and community members, as political pundits then use this rage to encourage them to “get involved.” In the summer of 2021, we started to see parents show up in school board public comment with their fears that CRT is being taught in the district. Director Myers was inspired by one such pundit as she disclosed in this post-election interview with FOX News. During this interview, she continued the CRT panic, stating, “my opponent actually ran on the insistence that CRT was not being taught in the classrooms throughout the entire country, and I know that’s not true,” and then falsely equated Critical Race Theory with DCSD’s Educational Equity Policy, saying the policy has “tenets of CRT in its implementation.”
The result is that people become fearful of talking about the divisiveness of racism and disengage from working toward “eliminating the harmful effects of racism and bringing about a just and healthy world for all,” as Matsuda explains. The consistent reality is that CRT has not been/is not being taught in DCSD. This has been reiterated multiple times, even in a recent interview with Superintendent Erin Kane, in which she literally said, “Critical race theory isn’t taught in Douglas County schools.”
“Woke Culture”
The term “woke” is used as a pejorative by this national extremist movement, used to diminish and dismiss honest concerns that communities have with forms of oppression, inequity, and injustice. The use of this word is another example of the co-opting of language and how it is weaponized against others.
The first references to the word “woke” were in the early 20th century, during the Jim Crow era, as a call to the Black community to stay vigilant about racially motivated violence and threats. Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. “Lead Belly,” released a song in 1938 about the experience of injustice of Black teenagers falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1931. At the end of the song, in spoken words, “stay woke, keep your eyes open” encouraging the Black community to be on guard for racial violence.
Analysis of the phrase and how it had been used in the Black community in a 1962 New York Times piece, written by author William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig it,” reiterated the meaning rooted in being a socially conscious Black American, aware of racial violence against the Black community, and then it was used more broadly. Interestingly, Kelley’s piece was rooted in the topic of linguistics and noted how Black American language was being appropriated, which would be the case more than 50 years later. The term saw larger mainstream use after the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, after Michael Brown was killed by police.
Kelley’s foreshadowing became reality as the term “woke” was then co-opted and appropriated by extremists to create another moral panic issue. The intent was to diminish and demean the use of the word, falsely translating into some form of “agenda,” attempting to label the word and those they label as woke as “silly” or “ridiculous” and even “discriminatory.”
In April 2022, Florida Governor Ron DiSantis signed “The Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act,” which prohibits workplace training or school instruction that teaches that “individuals are inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” In his speech at the bill signing, Governor DiSantis said this, “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.” Noteably using key coded language of “woke agenda” and “indoctrination” and falsely conflates equity work with “discrimination.” This legislation that went into effect on July 1, is being challenged, alleging that the new law is in violation of Constitutional rights.
Another organization that was founded on the principles of “anti-woke”culture is FAIR. Founder Bion Bartning outlined his concerns in coded language after he pulled his children out of a private school, “The insistence on teaching race consciousness is a fundamental shift into a sort of tribalism.”
The Douglas County FAIR chapter is a rebrand of “Wokebusters of Douglas County.” Several of the leaders of the chapter are regulars at BOE meetings, and have the ear of our BOE majority (5:58:15). President Peterson has been a member since April 2021 and is still an active participant. Before declaring his candidacy for school board, Peterson used the Facebook group to stoke fear about the earlier mentioned Gemini diversity and equity training, by stating this about the training, “It should scare the hell out of you.”
The intent of gaslighting with this coded language is to make individuals feel that talking about actual discrimination and oppression is somehow “wrong” and creates a “victim mentality” among those experiencing actual oppression. More importantly, as seen with the Florida legislation, when workplaces and schools are prohibited from talking about important concepts to create more equitable and inclusive environments, this enables a status quo of oppression.
In DCSD, we are seeing members of our community dismiss the need for the educational equity policy, even in the face of staff, students, and parents sharing their lived experiences with oppression and discrimination. In a post-election interview with FOX News, Peterson said, “Equity is a squishy word.” This at best a tone deaf comment, considering that educational equity work has been around for decades and is rooted in data.
At a BoE meeting on Nov. 30, 2021, Director Peterson continued to use coded language in attempts to discredit DCSD’s Educational Equity policy and stoke fear about the policy with statements like “prevent the trip from academics into activism,” (3:09), continued by Director Winegar falsely claiming the this about the policy, “it’s still allowing for some things that are concerning.” (3:19)
Benjamin Faye, author and advocate, said it best…
“And just like that, a word used amongst Black people to warn each other about the dangers of racism is being used to gaslight Black people and say that racism doesn’t exist. In other words, a term used to keep each other safe is now being used to make us more unsafe than we previously were.”
We highlighted an example of this in the second part of this blog in series, as the local FAIR chapter targeted teachers who posted inclusive signage in their classroom.
“Grooming”
In our previous blog post about misinformation attacks on teachers, we opened a dialogue about the harmful “groomer” narrative, starting in the 1970s with Anita Bryant and the “Save Our Children” Campaign, that plays on a harmful trope of LGBTQ+ people, claiming that they are “grooming” children for sexual abuse. Any LGBTQ+ affirming or inclusive content is falsely conflated to mean that children are being “groomed” by the LGBTQ+ community.
Rufo is now adapting advancing his coded language beyond CRT, targeting the LGBTQ+ community as well; his new campaign for manufactured moral panic is “radical gender ideology.”
His rationale, “The Left's linguistic defense on CRT was to say ‘CRT is only in law schools’ and ‘that's not explicitly labeled CRT.’ ‘Radical gender theory’ will neutralize both those defenses: we're imposing the label on a set of concepts and ideologies; debating the specifics is a win for us.”
Director Peterson has followed the same playbook, suggesting grooming is taking place in our schools. When speaking at a political luncheon last spring, he accused teachers of sneaking sexually inappropriate content into the classroom. Was his intention to create a manufactured moral panic in the DCSD community?
Recently, Twitter called out the “groomer” narrative as an anti-LGBTQ+ slur and banned the use of the word on its platform, encouraging other platforms to do the same. In true misinformation style, the creators and people perpetuating the anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” narrative are now labeling it “censorship” (Rufo), or trying to play the mental gymnastics of separating yourself from a dangerous trope by saying, “Why do you conflate this behavior with LGBTQ?” (Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Gov. DeSantis) knowing full-well that the goal has been to accuse LGBTQ+ people of being sexual deviants, intent on abusing children.
There are major issues with promoting the “grooming” narrative or “gender ideology” fear. The first is that this language dehumanizes the LGBTQ+ community, trying to make them seem as if they are dangerous people. Falsely conflating “gender identity” with “sexual identity,” to mean the same thing is dangerous and a tactic that has been used somewhat successfully to confuse the meanings of the words “equity” and “equality” when attacking social justice issues. And the implication that if even acknowledging the existence of gender identify “turns kids gay,” puts the safety of LGBTQ+ youth and adults at risk.
Dr. AnneMarie McClain, a fellow at the University of Madison-Wisconsin who specializes in child development, “You can’t change or control someone’s identity, even a child’s,” she explains. “You shouldn’t — though you could — control a child’s expression. But that can very seriously harm them, and adults shouldn’t do this.” “limiting children’s ideas of gender could lead to them developing harmful notions, stereotypes and biases that remain with them long term.”
Additionally, the historical use of the word “grooming” has been used as a term to help identify behaviors/indicators of actual child abusers. Recasting it to imply that simply acknowledging and discussing gender identity equates potential for sexual abuse is ludicrous.
Former competitive dancer and gymnast Grace French, who was groomed and then molested by former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar, says it plainly about the harm created by this anti-LGBTQ+ narrative,
“We need to know what it [grooming] actually means so we can keep kids safe.”
Fanning the Fire
All of these tactics – deliberate misinformation and moral panic campaigns – are designed to maintain the status quo of educational inequity, at the same time dehumanizing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to justify discriminatory practices, such as educational educational gag orders, book bans, and diluting educational equity policies.
And educators, teaching with an inclusive curriculum that is respectful of all student experiences and backgrounds, become targets in this manufactured culture war being stoked in America.
We are witnessing, quite frankly, the dismantling of public education, implemented by extremists on the right, in the name of conservatism.