The Republican Party must support governors and school-board members who are fighting to prevent US educational institutions from becoming a “cesspool of Marxist indoctrination,” Senator Marco Rubio has said.
“Dangerous academic constructs like critical race theory and radical gender theory are being forced on elementary school children,” Rubio wrote in an article published in the American Conservative magazine on Tuesday.
The party needs to provide “reinforcements” to Republican governors and school-board members who are fighting against such ideas being taught to students, he said.
“We need to ensure no federal funding is ever used to promote these radical ideas in schools,” the Florida senator insisted.
Any complaint by a parent or student about school curricula or counseling pushing “divisive concepts” also has to be thoroughly investigated, he added.
Critical race theory, which has existed in academia since the 1980s, is currently taught in many American schools, universities and workplaces. It suggests that people’s relative “privilege” is defined by their skin color, gender, sexuality and other fixed characteristics. Proponents of the theory claim that males sit at the top of the hierarchy and perpetuate “white supremacy” knowingly or unknowingly. Meanwhile, those who oppose the theory argue that it pits people of color against white people and leads to anti-white discrimination.
Some 17 states have so far passed legislation restricting the teaching of critical race theory, according to Education Week, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis banned it from schools altogether last year.
Rubio’s article was titled “My Plan for American Renewal” and outlined three key tasks, which he believes Republicans should focus on in the near future. They are “putting Wall Street in its place,” bringing critical industries back to the US, and rebuilding America’s workforce. According to the senator, these steps require Washington to tackle Beijing and reorient the deep-rooted economic relationship between the two nations.