The top fundraising challenger to U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s re-election spoke with an avowed crusader against critical race theory taught in schools, calling on those who are concerned to get involved as one of a host of talking points to address curriculum in publicly-funded institutions.
During a town hall event hosted in downtown Vancouver on Dec. 11, Congressional candidate and former Army Special Forces operative Joe Kent stopped by to host a self-avowed journalist, Chris Rufo, in an event focusing on critical race theory.
Rufo spoke specifically on the theory, an often-touted ideology that addresses the aspect of racial dynamics in the context of history that has yet, if at all, been implemented into local K-12 education. He characterized himself as the “foremost critic” on the topic, saying through a year of investigation he was able to find countless individuals who are critics of the concept.
“It really emerged most deeply, most profoundly, and most prominently in the Pacific Northwest, Portland public schools and Seattle public schools. They’ve been grinding on this for more than a decade,” Rufo said.
He said teachers are told to think of themselves not as individuals, but as identity categories. He claimed the public school system is not educating youth, but “first and foremost to transmit political ideology.”
Rufo cited copious investigative work, among other focuses explicitly about Portland schools in his talking points, saying he encountered sources who are afraid to speak out due to the potential of backlash.
“Critical race theory, it sounds bad, actually, it’s a really poor phrase, they picked it poorly,” Rufo said.
He said the focus on race is “merely a tool” for a greater level of control.
“It’s something that works because, obviously, in one sense, the United States has a history of racial injustice. This is true, we should be honest about that,” Rufo said. “But it uses that historical premise to try to move kids to an explicit, left-wing revolutionary ideology in the present day.”
Rufo said there is an emerging special interest group across the country: parents.
“American parents are showing that there’s a line you cannot cross, the line between parent and child in public schools,” Rufo said.
Rufo dived deeper into what he framed as a left-wing bureaucracy within the federal government that is pulling the strings on an operation far deeper than just K-12 schooling.
“They’re careers, left-wing, untouchable bureaucrats who will say ‘I’m gonna be here in 15 years, you’re going to be gone in somewhere between four and eight,’” Rufo said.
Kent, who addressed nearly every question or comment given by attendees, said the best thing concerned members of the public could do is to show up at school board meetings.
“Right now, I think showing up and letting them know that they are being watched and we have our eyes on them (is important),” Kent said. “I think it goes a very long way.”
