On Monday, president-elect Joe Biden announced his choice for Deputy Secretary of Education: San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten, whom it was reported had praised a speaker promulgating the idea that schools “spirit murder” black children and that white teachers should undergo “antiracist therapy.”
Investigative reporter Christopher Rufo wrote, “According to whistleblower documents, Martens personally introduced the speaker, Bettina Love, and praised her presentation about ‘spirit murder,’ ‘antiracist therapy,’ and ‘abolitionist teaching’” when Love was a featured speaker at a training program last August.
According to whistleblower documents, Martens personally introduced the speaker, Bettina Love, and praised her presentation about "spirit murder," "antiracist therapy," and "abolitionist teaching." Martens is one of the most radical superintendents in the country.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 18, 2021
Earlier this month, Rufo wrote:
The school district hired Bettina Love, a critical race theorist who believes that children learn better from teachers of the same race, for the keynote address at the August Principal Institute and for an additional district-wide training on how to “challenge the oppressive practices that live within the systems and structures of school organizations.”
Rufo noted that a whistleblower “took detailed notes of the speech and captured screenshots of the presentation” despite the district’s ban on attendees from recording the session. He continued, “According to these notes, Love began her presentation by claiming that ‘racism runs deep’ in the United States and that blacks alone ‘know who America really is.’ She argued that public schools in particular ‘don’t see [blacks] as human,’ are guilty of systemic ‘anti-Blackness,’ and ‘spirit murder babies’ in the education system.”
“At the end of her presentation, Love told the teachers that whites are directly responsible for the plight of ‘dark children,’” Rufo reported, adding that a slide labeled “Teacher Education Gap” stated, “Whiteness reproduces poverty, failing schools, high unemployment, school closings, and trauma for people of color.”
Love reportedly asserted that “white educators” derived privileges from “white supremacy culture.”
Biden’s prospective Department of Education looks as though it may be highly sympathetic to “critical race theory.” As The Daily Wire reported in December:
Joe Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, the current Connecticut commissioner of education, helped oversee curricula for high school students to be implemented in fall 2022 that is influenced by “critical race theory.”
As The Washington Free Beacon noted, Connecticut requires a course in African-American, Puerto Rican and Latino studies. The Connecticut Mirrorreported on December 2:
Connecticut high schools will now be required to offer a course in African American, Black, Latino and Puerto Rican studies after the state Board of Education unanimously approved its implementation on Wednesday. The new curriculum will be offered as a full-year elective for students, but the board is hoping that with enough momentum, it could expand and be required for all students.
Under “Learning Objectives,” the curricula states, “Analyze how race, power, and privilege influence group access to citizenship, civil rights, and economic power.”
Cardona stated: “Let’s not forget the connection between kids wanting to be in school and kids attending school. And when we see that our attendance rate with Black and Latino students is worse, when we see that our achievement outcomes or academic outcomes are disparate in Connecticut, we have to take real action. I think there’s equal benefit to students who are not Black and Latino to take this course. We hear about windows and doors, that curriculum serves as a window into other cultures. This is a window into another culture for many students.”