Group’s vow to ‘dismantle white supremacy culture’ raises concern for some on NC board

A charter school network that lists “actively dismantle white supremacy culture” among its key principles has been approved to train teachers for North Carolina public schools.

But some Republican members of the State Board of Education disagree with the approval, questioning whether the network will be teaching Critical Race Theory.

The Board of Education voted 6-4 on Thursday to approve the application from KIPP North Carolina to offer an educator preparation program. Members were split over how KIPP’s application listed as one its “key principles” that “all teachers, leaders, and coaches consistently interrupt their implicit bias, actively dismantle white supremacy culture, disrupt anti-Blackness in their pedagogy and coaching.”

State board member Olivia Oxendine, who voted against the application, said, “The language that was used in some of their principles or beliefs ... pull directly from the dictionary, vocabulary of Critical Race Theory.”

Critical Race Theory is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life,” according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department. It holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.

Public school leaders say that Critical Race Theory is only taught in law schools. But critics say CRT concepts have made their way into K-12 classrooms.

KIPP denies it will use Critical Race Theory

KIPP is trying to defuse the concerns.

“This passage does not imply any intent by KIPP North Carolina to use Critical Race Theory as a pedagogy for training teachers in our licensure program,” Tim Saintsing, executive director of KIPP North Carolina Public Schools, wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to the state board. “The inclusion of this passage has nothing to do with the curricula teachers will teach in their classrooms.”

Instead, Saintsing said, most of the teacher training will be about literacy and math skills. KIPP has been approved to train teachers in elementary education, middle school math and middle school language arts.

KIPP is hoping its new program will increase the pipeline of teachers for its eight charter schools in the state. KIPP is a national charter chain with schools in low-income areas. It emphasizes college preparation and student discipline.

“KIPP North Carolina schools serve students from predominantly Black communities, so our training has to include content for teachers, regardless of their background, to understand the communities in which they work and the importance of building positive, strong relationships with all students and families,” Saintsing wrote.

The state Department of Public Instruction recommended that the state board approve KIPP’s application after it got positive reviews from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

But a vote about the application was pulled from the Feb. 1 meeting agenda at the request of Oxendine, who chairs the state board’s educator standards and practices committee.

‘White supremacy culture’

DPI asked KIPP to address the state board’s concerns. This included a request from Republican State Superintendent Catherine Truitt about what KIPP meant when it talked about “white supremacy culture” in its application.

“Our naming of white supremacy culture acknowledges the many historical inequities that KIPP NC has been working for decades to address in our state’s public school system,” Saintsing wrote in his response. “We do this work in response to our state’s unacceptable 30-point achievement gap between our Black students and their white peers.

“We absolutely want our teachers equipped with the knowledge of those inequities and that gap so they can address them and do the very difficult work of preparing the students in their care with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose — college, career, and beyond — so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.”

GOP board members oppose KIPP application

During the board’s discussion on Wednesday, Oxendine said she wasn’t satisfied with KIPP’s response.

“I think that there are just a host of ways that educators can prepare future educators to be sensitive to differences, to understand and teach the value of empathy and understanding the differences in individuals,” Oxendine said. “ I am 54-year veteran educator and I am a minority: American Indian.

“I know how to approach these topics regardless of the color and I believe that any of our preparation programs can do the very same thing without delving into the vitriol of what I think is CRT.”

Oxendine was joined by fellow Republican board members Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and State Treasurer Dale Folwell in opposing KIPP’s application.

They were joined by Wendell Hall, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. All of Cooper’s other appointees — John Blackburn, Jill Camnitz, board chair Eric Davis, vice chair Alan Duncan, Reginald Kenan and Catty Moore — supported KIPP’s application.