Last year, on May 5, 2021, Governor Inslee signed SB 5044, a bill to impose the radical Critical Race Theory (CRT) ideology in the public K-12 schools. CRT teaches that if people are identified as white, Jewish or Asian, they are oppressors; if they are seen as black, Hispanic or part of another group, they are oppressed. The Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) is implementing the next step in forcing this illegal and unconstitutional CRT ideology into Washington’s classrooms, using its regulatory control over the licensing of teachers.

The PESB has taken this next step by developing “Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (CCDEI) standards to regulate how teachers are to teach. These CCDEI standards have been developed from Critical Race Theory concepts. (See “Resources,” here: https://www.pesb.wa.gov/innovation-policy/ccdei/.)  In the next two days, March 24 and March 25, the PESB will vote to approve or reject these standards.

The CCDEI standards developed by the PESB include concepts which violate the consciences of many teachers. This morning KOMO News reports the statewide teachers shortage is expected to get worse. Yet the PESB will be requiring teachers to be trained and evaluated in these CCDEI standards as a condition of obtaining and keeping their teaching licenses.

The CCDEI standards will create hostile work environments, allow the use of perceived racial identities to target and harass disfavored employees, and violate teachers’ First Amendment and civil rights.

The CCDEI standards will further degrade the academic learning of Washington’s students. November 2021 test scores show 70 percent of students failed the state math test, and 52 percent of student failed the state English test. Yet instead of focusing on helping students recover from their learning losses, teachers will be forced learn and teach the complexities of CRT by these CCDEI standards. Teachers will be forced to become classroom practitioners of this quasi-religious orthodoxy.

It is ironic. PESB is responsible for ensuring teachers have the skills and knowledge to help students meet state learning goals. Yet the fervor of this new CRT religion has distracted even the PESB from its central mission of ensuring the competency of teachers, and made the agency a participant in degrading the academic learning of Washington’s students.

The PESB is poised to make life even harder for teachers. Teachers will be required to accept these CCDEI standards as a condition of obtaining and keeping their licenses to teach. School administrators will use the CCDEI standards to evaluate their performance in the classroom.

Yet the PESB may vote on Friday to approve these CCDEI standards, and require Washington’s teachers to accept and promote this set of harmful and divisive CRT ideas which have no rightful place in public education.