Texas may be known as reliably red regarding elections, but educators spanning the Lone Star state are admittedly injecting the principles of Critical Race Theory into classrooms – despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s 2021 ban.
In the latest installment of Accuracy in Media’s in-depth Texas investigation, Corpus Christi area educators admitted to teaching the principles of the debunked 1619 Project by the New York Times Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones.
However, parents wouldn’t know about this. That’s because, according to Calallen ISD curriculum director Jodi Ferguson, they don’t actually mention the 1619 Project.
Abbott signed House Bill 3979 in June 2021. The legislation does its best to prohibit the teaching that some individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
But, as AIM’s investigation shows viewers, the law seemingly bears no weight on the educational content decisions of teachers in Texas.
“We probably don’t say ‘1619,’” Curriculum Director at Calallen ISD Jodi Ferguson told investigators on hidden camera.
“But, are some of the concepts in there, in the way we’re teaching it, are they in there? I would say yes,” she said. “But we just can’t say ‘1619 Project.’”
“That would be a terminology we would avoid,” Ferguson said.
After the publication of The 1619 Project by The New York Times Magazine, the work was debunked by historians who wrote in a letter to the publication that “These errors, which concern major events, cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing.’”
Further, the historians wrote, “They are matters of verifiable fact, which are the foundation of both honest scholarship and honest journalism. They suggest a displacement of historical understanding by ideology.”
Ferguson’s district isn’t the only one where educators are willing to cut parents out.
Karen Mircovich, instructional programs director at Ingleside ISD, confirmed to AIM investigators that teachers in the district will close their doors and teach what they believe to be right when it comes down to it.