Poll: 69 Percent of Voters Say CRT Curriculum Dividing Youth

A full 69% of U.S. voters say critical race theory curriculums in schools is further dividing American youth.

Nearly 70% say public schools should be investing more time on math, science, and grammar rather than teaching cultural curriculum like critical race theory and sexual identity/transgenderism.

Republicans have targeted critical race theory for years. Some GOP-led states have banned educators from teaching students CRT in schools, including Florida, Arkansas, Iowa, and Tennessee.

Many Republicans view the concepts in critical race theory as an effort to rewrite American history and persuade white people that they are inherently racist and should feel guilty.

"This eye-opening poll shows that Americans are realizing the truth about critical race theory curriculum — it is designed to create division and stoke racial tensions," said Pastor John Amanchukwu Sr., a faculty member at Summit Ministries.

"Furthermore, Americans are saying they are done with the hyper-agendized curriculum like CRT, and transgender studies — which only divide our students from each other, their parents, and even reality.

"As we see in this poll, and at school boards across the country, everyday Americans are demanding a national recommitment to reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history. It's time that education, not indoctrination, returns as the focus of every classroom in our nation."

Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America's history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress after the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation's institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.

The architects of the theory argue that the U.S. was founded on the theft of land and labor and that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race. Proponents also believe race is culturally invented, not biological.

The poll, conducted Dec. 9-14, surveyed 1,000 general election voters. It has an accuracy of plus/minus 3.1%.  

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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