OPINION: Elected officials should drop their political theatrics over CRT and embrace the serious issues in our K-12 education system that continues to deny equal opportunity for all students.

Across our nation, families and students have struggled during the pandemic to keep up with their educational progress. For many families, this pandemic forced them into a crisis-induced distance learning that they, and their local school districts, were not prepared for. For students of color, this crisis-induced distance learning demonstrated to the nation the significant gap that they face in equally accessing education opportunities.

While certain communities easily negotiated this process, far too many neighborhoods across our nation saw families struggle with key distance learning components such as access to high-speed internet and having key technology tools like laptops and tablets readily available.

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The result of this chaos is the reality that a significant amount of our nation’s students are preparing to return to school this fall with significant learning loss and gaps in their education. For students of color, the learning loss has been far more significant. In a study published by McKinsey in December 2020, it was estimated that the learning loss for students of color in math was 12 to 16 months. The issues and challenges that await teachers, students, and families this fall are serious and require the entire focus of our elected officials.

In this Thursday, March 11, 2021 file photo, desks are arranged in a classroom at an elementary school in Nesquehoning, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

In this environment, you would likely assume that policymakers and elected officials are aware of the serious challenges that our students face returning to school and would be solely focused on addressing learning loss and ensuring that all students had the resources they need to succeed. Unfortunately, that is the furthest thing from the truth.

In many states and local school districts across our nation, elected officials have abandoned their focus on student success and instead found a new political enemy in education to chase, the truth about our nation’s history.

For the past few months, the news has been filled with stories about the rising concerns by those on the political right regarding critical race theory. Critical race theory has been portrayed as being an attack on our nation and attempts by those on the far political left to indoctrinate children. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called it “poison that is being poured into the minds of our kids” on a Fox News interview.

As the right found their new political organizing issue, many state legislatures have taken this opportunity to further attack the historical truth about our nation. In Missouri this week, their legislature’s Joint Committee on Education held an extensive hearing on critical race theory. The hearing went for three hours and had over a half-dozen individuals testify. Shockingly, this legislative hearing about American history and race, did not have one Black student, parent, teacher, or education leader invited to provide testimony.

Source: Republican obsession over critical race theory is harming Black students