A battle for education that is raging on a national level, is now also an issue at a local level.

A rise in the discussion of Critical Race Theory (CRT), an academic concept which originated in the ‘70s and ‘80s that examines the intersection between race and law, has come to Jennings County. CRT, a catch-all term for concerns about how kids are taught about race, the country’s history, social emotional learning, and sexual deviation among others, is currently not taught in K-12 schools, including here in Jennings County, and a local group wants to keep it that way.

Superintendent Teresa Brown confirmed that CRT is not part of the Jennings County School Corporation (JCSC) curriculum and furthermore the school corporation has policies dictating curriculum and instruction standards as approved by the state.

Despite this, there is state legislation currently being considered that could greatly alter the public education system. House Bill 1134, would require classroom materials to be posted online and vetted by parent review committees, as well as place restrictions on teaching about racism and political topics. House Bill 1182 is a push for partisan school board races.

A local group called the Excellence in Education Jennings County (EIEJC) was formed by concerned parents and business owners, some of whom have educational and political backgrounds, after seeing CRT programs gain traction in some other Indiana counties.

Similar to the proposed legislation, EIEJC took a proactive approach and researched other communities that have established language in their school policies to prevent the teaching of CRT as well as ensuring the protection of parents’ rights in the school system.

The group has proposed adding similar language to JCSC policies. Superintendent Brown said the school board is reviewing EIEJC’s proposal and will decide if they think it is needed beyond what is already in place for the district, but emphasized their goal is to always align school policies with state laws.

To forward their campaign to ensure parents’ rights and prevent CRT teachings, EIEJC hosted an education forum at The Barn in North Vernon on Tuesday, January 18, with Alex Newman as the headline speaker. A majority of the audience who attended were JCSC faculty, most donned in red attire in honor of “Support Public Education Day.”

The forum began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer before EIEJC organizer David Cheatham advised those who had gathered that the purpose of the forum was to inform the public of issues regarding education and not for protests and demonstrations.

“We all have the same goal: to love, protect and make children better through education,” said Cheatham. “We need to recognize that we are One Nation Under God, not One Nation Under Government.

Newman, a father of five who serves as president of Liberty Sentinel Media Inc., has authored a wide array of publications throughout the world, and is a contributor to “Epoch Times,” a correspondent for the Law Enforcement Intelligence Brief, a foreign correspondent and senior editor for “The New American” magazine, a writer for World Net Daily, and an education writer for Freedom Project Media. He has also taught high school economics.

Newman’s overall message seemed to be that God and Christian principles have been taken out of schools, and without a Biblical foundation, America’s children are being indoctrinated by the government through the education system to hate their families, country and church. He focused a portion of his speech on the rise of the LBGTQ community and the sexual revolution making it’s way into classrooms.

Newman is also founder of Public School Exit, an organization that exists to “facilitate a massive exodus from public schools by raising awareness and knocking down barriers for parents, pastors and children,” according to the organization’s website.

Newman did, in fact, end his hour-long speech by promoting Public School Exit and encouraging parents to take their children out of public schools because they are not safe in the public system.

“Nobody is going to protect your kids if you don’t,” Newman said. “Families are fleeing the [school] system and I firmly believe if we can get enough children out, get them a good education at home, in a Christian school, in the proper environment, we really can have a new renaissance, we can have a revival in this country. We can restore the foundation of our nation.”

Midway through Newman’s speech, the JCSC faculty who had attended “walked out in solidarity,” according to a public statement issued later by the Jennings County Classroom and Teacher Association (JCCTA). The group cited “the demonization of public school educators and horribly false claims about public education” as reasons for the departure.

“We are very supportive of parent involvement,” JCCTA Vice-President Callie Garrett said prior to the start of the forum, “but this is not about having parents informed, it’s more of a direct attack.”

Jane Coquerille, who was in attendance at the forum and has ties to the LBGTQ community, angrily approached Newman, while he was still presenting, for his statements regarding the gay community, and was told to leave the forum by organizers.

“I was so shocked at the content of the presentation and how it had nothing to do with actual issues regarding the school curriculum in Jennings County,” said Coquerille.

Despite Cheatham’s insistence that the EIEJC strives to “verify, verify, verify” its claims and concerns with education, JCCTA president Molly Vaughan said their concerns are not the issues at hand.

The issue isn’t CRT, because CRT isn’t approved for our curriculum, clarified Vaughan. She noted that by trying to center the issues around CRT, legislators and EIEJC are trying to micromanage an already highly micromanaged profession to the point that it is difficult to retain current educators and almost impossible to hire new ones.

“There are already over 760 education openings on the Indiana Department of Education Job Bank. This shortage will no doubt get worse with piling on the workload. Teachers are professionals and should be treated as such,” said Vaughan.

The JCCTA president said she doesn’t doubt that there are EIEJC members who genuinely want to support the school system, but she believes pushing the current legislation and urging parents to exit public schools will not help the community.

She noted that public schools are an economic asset, as they employ cooks, janitors, and bus drivers as well as educators, and additionally provide a safe space for any and all students educationally, emotionally, and physically with tutoring and scholarship opportunities, counseling, and free lunch programs. Communities with struggling schools do not entice businesses, new families and potential possibilities for students.

“Teachers are not against transparency. We want kids to feel safe and learn,” Vaughan said, adding that parents can contact teachers, principals, and their school board members if they wish to be involved in their child’s education.

“Trying to blow up the whole system by bringing in divisive speakers is not the way to go,” Vaughan added. “Where we can meet in the middle is having conversations about how to locally make our system better without bringing in the statehouse to micromanage education. JCSC needs our community’s trust and support. As educators and speaking for the JCCTA we need to know that this community values our schools. If parents value what we have here, and the people that have given their careers to JCSC, then we can survive anything. But we need parents and supporters to call the statehouse and talk to their legislators, to send letters, to have discussions with other community members.”