{"id":479362,"date":"2021-05-06T19:05:39","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T23:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=479362"},"modified":"2021-05-06T19:05:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T23:05:41","slug":"virginia-school-districts-anti-racist-curriculum-could-cost-taxpayers-280k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-school-districts-anti-racist-curriculum-could-cost-taxpayers-280k\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia School District\u2019s \u2018Anti-Racist\u2019 Curriculum Could Cost Taxpayers $280K"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvirginia-school-districts-anti-racist-curriculum-could-cost-taxpayers-280k%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=479362&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rsz_gettyimages-475315437.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia could shell out up to $280,000 of taxpayer funds for a pricey equity consultant to develop an &#8220;anti-racist&#8221; curriculum for public school students.<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced the school would develop &#8220;a new Anti-Racism, Anti-Bias Education Curriculum Policy&#8221; in an email sent to parents Thursday, which was obtained by the <em>Washington Free Beacon. <\/em>The district will pay the Leadership Academy for equity training sessions, according to the group\u2019s March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairfaxcounty.gov\/cregister\/ContractDetails.aspx?contractNumber=4400010398\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contract<\/a> with Fairfax County Public Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Fairfax is the latest Virginia school district to prioritize &#8220;anti-racism&#8221; in education during the coronavirus pandemic. Arlington County Public Schools <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/virginia-school-district-forces-teachers-to-undergo-equity-training-on-day-off\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">required<\/a> teachers to undergo an equity training session last fall. Loudoun County Public Schools adopted a &#8220;Culturally Responsive Framework&#8221; last June, which called for the school community to dismantle &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; and asked teachers to audit the K-12 curriculum to include lessons on identity, power, and privilege.<\/p>\n<p>The complete menu of equity training sessions outlined by the Leadership Academy could cost the district between $240,000 to $280,000, depending on which lessons the district selects and whether instruction is offered virtually or in-person. A spokesperson for Fairfax schools did not respond to the<em> Free Beacon<\/em>\u2018s inquiry on how much the district spent on the program.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 2003, the Leadership Academy works on &#8220;dismantling systemic inequities in schools,&#8221; with a focus on training teachers and faculty to be &#8220;culturally responsive.&#8221; The nonprofit provides &#8220;equity audits&#8221; for school districts and has worked for more than 200 schools across 37 states and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership Academy coaching sessions cost $6,700 per person for online or $9,100 for &#8220;blended&#8221; instruction. Group sessions for five staffers cost between $12,000 and $14,000, depending on the mode of instruction. Virtual Equitable Practice coaching for groups of 16-30 people costs more than $30,000.<\/p>\n<p>Fairfax County Public Schools employs thousands of staff members, including nearly 200 principals and 15 regional assistant superintendents and executive principles.<\/p>\n<p>Brabrand said his district is dedicated to &#8220;realizing a vision of educational equity&#8221; to create a school system where students feel &#8220;empowered.&#8221; His email asked parents to take a survey, which questioned whether they think Fairfax County teachers are well-equipped to discuss race and racism in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>The survey asks parents if curriculum &#8220;should give students opportunities to recognize injustices that systems create,&#8221; whether &#8220;teachers should have materials to guide them in creating anti-racist and anti-biased classroom environments,&#8221; and if Fairfax schools allow students to &#8220;develop positive self-identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A parent of two Fairfax County high school students told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that the survey &#8220;starts with the presumption that racism is rampant in our schools when it simply is not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our schools should be places to learn, not places to divide, and the narrative being advanced is corrosive and divisive,&#8221; the parent said.<\/p>\n<p>Rory Cooper, a parent of three Fairfax elementary school students, said Brabrand\u2019s time would be better spent working to fix coronavirus-related learning loss.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many students in Fairfax County are still only getting two days a week of instruction, and nobody is getting more than four days a week,&#8221; Cooper told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;Scott Brabrand should focus his attention on getting more kids in school and repairing the damage he\u2019s caused over the last year right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most Fairfax students spent the majority of the week learning virtually until April. Cooper noted that districts like Fairfax that haven\u2019t fully reopened for in-person learning are often the ones pushing for radical curriculum changes.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t Fairfax\u2019s first attempt to inject radical elements into its K-12 curriculum. Fairfax teachers last summer <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/culture\/virginia-school-district-develops-new-anti-racist-curriculum-shaped-by-southern-poverty-law-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">developed<\/a> an &#8220;anti-racist&#8221; curriculum borrowing framework from Learning for Justice, the educational arm of the liberal nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center formerly known as Teaching Tolerance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia could shell out up to $280,000 of taxpayer funds for a pricey equity consultant to develop an &#8220;anti-racist&#8221; curriculum for public school students. Superintendent &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277499,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rsz_gettyimages-475315437.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Virginia School District\u2019s \u2018Anti-Racist\u2019 Curriculum Could Cost Taxpayers $280K","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rsz_gettyimages-475315437.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Virginia School District\u2019s \u2018Anti-Racist\u2019 Curriculum Could Cost Taxpayers $280K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}