The Johnston County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina is withholding $7.9 million in funding until the school board passes a provision blocking critical race theory from being taught in county classrooms.
The Observer reported the new policy imprinted in the school county's Code of Ethics now states that "the United States foundational documents shall not be undermined,' and 'all people who contributed to American Society will be recognized and presented as reformists, innovators and heroes to our culture.' The policy says failure to comply 'will result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.'"
However, not all were in agreement on the board's issuing of the new policy. President of the Johnston County Association of Educators and an 8th-grade social studies teacher, April Lee, says the system is "selling our souls to the devil for $7.9 million."
"It's basically extortion," Lee said. "They're holding money hostage until they get a policy that is extreme enough for them to approve. We should all be angry about that."
Critical race theory is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as the concept in which race is a socially constructed category ingrained in American law intended to maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites. It holds that the U.S. society is inherently or systemically racist.
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