"Woke" Schools: Responding to Critical Race Theory in Education

Critical race theory has been spreading in schools at an accelerating pace since last summer's protests. The ideology, which takes aim at color blindness and treats all disparities as systemic, is taking hold especially in American’s elite schools, where students are being instructed as early as kindergarten to become “color-conscious” and “activists for antiracism.” Consultancies, such as Pollyanna, are capitalizing on the increased demand for training in schools and charging a premium for their antiracism curriculum. Many parents, surprised and distressed about what their children being taught in school, want to push back against the school administrations, but do not know what to do. To discuss the tools that parents can use to effectively organize and respond to this phenomenon, the Manhattan Institute is bringing together a panel of experts with experience working on this issue, including litigating a major case against a Washington, D.C.-area public high school. Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the institute, will moderate the panel, which brings together cofounder and copresident of Place NYC Yiatin Chu, former Wall Street Journal reporter and vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education, Asra Nomani; and founder and president of Parents Defending Education and Speech First, Nicole Neily.