Banning critical race theory in schools is unjustified, argues Jason Stanley

In america in the past two years a media campaign has incited a moral panic about public schools. Its advocates, from journalists such as Christopher Rufo and Tucker Carlson, to politicians including Virginia’s Governor Glenn Youngkin and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, maintain that public schools impose leftist indoctrination on children. It has been funded and promoted by organisations associated with free-market solutions to social and political problems, such as the Manhattan Institute. Its proponents began in 2020 by accusing public schools of indoctrinating students in “critical race theory” (crt). Following Poland, Russia, Hungary, Brazil and other backsliding democracies, the campaign has now shifted its focus to “gender ideology”. These attacks have turned public schools and the communities that depend on them into proverbial war zones.