Pa. School District votes unanimously to keep CRT

One bill, HB1532, is a Republican sponsored bill.

Those lawmakers said that the legislations are aimed at curtailing the divisive nature of concepts more commonly known as the Critical Race Theory. However, the Director of a Pittsburgh Public School Board Devon Taliaferro argued that lawmakers do not control what is taught in schools.

“This resolution, I think, is really important because it also tells our legislators in Harrisburg that you don’t get to decide how we educate our students and the environment that we create for them, you don’t get to determine what’s going on in our schools and our cities and our classrooms, in parts of the state you’ve never been to. It really is an opportunity for us to stand up as a school district,” Taliaferro said.

Other bills required schools to allow parents to opt their children out of curriculum containing sexually explicit content.

House Bill 2813, known as Parental Rights in Education prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The school board’s resolution twisted the bill’s intentions, by saying it intends to “censor marginalize exclude and discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and families”.

However, lawmakers like Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Pa.) said that they simply want to protect children and ensure they are only exposed to age-appropriate content.

“We have to restore common sense to the Commonwealth,” Mastriano said. “What’s happened to us? Bureaucrats get to decide how your kids identify in pronoun names have no place in schools. This has to end. Parents has the last say period. We are looking at education and not indoctrination.”

Republicans have fought against the teaching of the CRT and far-left curriculums in schools, arguing that it is destroying America.

The Pittsburgh School District now plans to send the resolution to the sponsors of the bills they oppose as well as the governor.