Black Fayette teacher supports critical race theory ban. KY education chief disagrees

In an impassioned speech during a legislative hearing, a Black Fayette County high school teacher on Tuesday sided with lawmakers trying to ban the controversial critical race theory in Kentucky classrooms.

“Critical race theory adjacent dogma,” such as culturally responsive teaching, suggests that black kids and kids of color shouldn’t be punished because of racism, said Delvin Azofeifa. Azofeifa teaches history at an alternative high school, Martin Luther King Academy for Excellence, the school district confirmed.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Education commissioner told state lawmakers that he is not aware that critical race theory is being taught in the state’s K-12 schools. He called bills to ban the theory “educator gag and student censorship” in that they seek to define what can and cannot be taught and discussed in Kentucky schools.

In a more than two-hour hearing before the Interim Joint Committee on Education, Commissioner Jason Glass said critical race theory is a decades-old legal and academic theory that seeks to explain why racism continues to exist. Glass said it’s a theory intended to provide a framework for the study of potential causes and effects of racism in society and how those might be mitigated.

Azofeifa, the Fayette teacher, said he would tender his resignation if he could not talk about past injustices that occurred in the nation.

Teacher: Critical race theory ‘not harmless’

However, Azofeifa said critical race theory “is not harmless and it is being taught in public schools,” though he didn’t say exactly what is taught in Fayette County. He said the theory didn’t consider causal factors other than racism. This year, he said he had a crop of ninth-graders who could not consistently capitalize and punctuate sentences.

“Why aren’t we more focused on these basic academic standards instead of indoctrinating students with” critical race theory adjacent content, Azofeifa said.

He said every time his students “get shot dead in the street,” he wonders why he and other teachers were given culturally responsive training.

“Why aren’t they giving us training to teach these kids not to go carjacking. Why aren’t they giving us the training to keep these kids from indulging in a hedonistic culture where prison is the order of the day and it looks cool? What curriculum do you have that’s going to solve that,” Azofeifa said.

“Fayette County Public Schools respects the rights of our employees to have their own personal opinions and share them with their elected officials,” district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said in response to Azofeifa’s comments.

State Rep. Regina Huff, R-Williamsburg, co-chair of the Interim Joint Committee on Education, said there would be at least one additional hearing on critical race theory before the 2022 General Assembly begins. No decisions were made Tuesday.

Glass said critical race theory is typically a graduate-level academic theory or concept taught in law school. Discussions of some concepts related to the theory might appear in a high school elective, though its developmental appropriateness for high school would be narrow, Glass said. It would likely not be appropriate for middle or elementary students.

Efforts to create equity at schools and critical race theory are not the same thing, Glass said.

Huff said she called the hearing after being inundated with emails from people saying that critical race theory was being taught in public schools.

Critical race theory means different things to different people and was not clearly defined at Tuesday’s meeting, said state Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville.

Kentucky is among several states where Republican lawmakers have introduced bills to limit how race is discussed in the classroom.

State Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, a sponsor of the prefiled BR 69, said Tuesday the bill was a ban on teaching and promoting critical race theory in Kentucky’s public schools — K-12 and post-secondary institutions. Lockett argued that the theory was being taught in Kentucky schools.

2 lawmakers: Complaints of critical race theory in KY schools

He said in one first-grade Kentucky classroom, a teacher told white students they were oppressors. He said in another example, a high school student said a teacher made her feel bad because she was white. Lockett said his legislation would ban those outcomes. He did not provide specifics on the schools or people involved in his examples.

Lockett maintained that critical race theory was rooted in Marxism. He said Karl Marx built his political program on the theory of class conflict. Lockett said according to critical race theory, whites are the suppressors and blacks are suppressed.

“I choose to believe that God loves all of us and that the American spirit is one that we can do and achieve whatever we set our minds to no matter what our skin color may be,” Lockett said. “Let’s not teach our children anything different.”

State Rep. Jennifer Henson Decker, R- Waddy, another sponsor of the bill for the 2022 legislative session, said parents tell her too that critical race theory is being taught in public schools.

Decker called the theory a “dangerous ideology” that indoctrinates students at taxpayers’ expense.

Lockett’s bill specifically prohibits teaching that: One race, sex, or religion is inherently superior to another race, sex, or religion; an individual, by virtue of his or her race, sex, or religion, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race, sex, or religion; members of one race, sex, or religion cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, sex, or religion; an individual’s moral character is determined by his or her race or sex.

Under the proposed legislation, school district employees would be subject to disciplinary action if they violated the law, and districts could be fined.

In Kentucky, school councils set curriculum and the Kentucky Department of Education sets standards or content.

State Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, has filed similar legislation — BR 60 — that would limit the teaching of systemic racism in Kentucky public schools.

Fischer prefiled his bill at the request of constituents who contacted him after a proposal to include critical race theory in the curriculum for the 2021-2022 school year at Highlands High School in Northern Kentucky was considered. The proposal was ultimately rejected, but controversy over the proposed legislation remains.

State Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, said the topic of critical race theory has been “polarizing.”

Marty Pollio, superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools, said his district had scrubbed references to critical race theory from a high school elective class.

State Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, a Jefferson County teacher, said she did not know why such a “vague,” difficult to understand bill was a priority when there were other pressing academic issues in Kentucky.

House Democratic members of the General Assembly’s Education Committee said in a joint statement that the legislation is an assault on free speech and would mandate a distorted teaching of history.

“We know this bill would have a chilling impact on teachers, and would compromise the success of Kentucky students. Forcing our schools to sanitize or erase large portions of our country’s history will hurt our students, threaten Kentucky’s economic success, undermine local control, and put the accreditation of Kentucky colleges and universities at serious risk,” the statement said.

This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 4:30 PM.