North Carolina Dept. of Instruction Pushed Racialized Preschool Teacher Training While Hiding Evidence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 June 2022
RALEIGH – No Left Turn in Education (NLTE) published a report today containing public records demonstrating the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) lied about its use of federal funds for racialized preschool teacher training materials.
In January 2022, the NC State Board of Education approved a contract that provided over $7 million in Federal IDEA grant funds to train teachers of disabled preschoolers in Critical Race Theory-based methodology through the NC-Early Learning Network (NC-ELN), a project of the NCDPI and UNC-Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
Pressure mounted against the contract once No Left Turn in Education and Education First Alliance published materials from the contract’s programs, including slides instructing teachers to “deconstruct whiteness.” public outcry, NC Superintendent of Education, Catherine Truitt, stated she would not sign the contract until “guardrails” were put in place.
Under Superintendent Truitt, the NCDPI officially denied knowledge of these materials and sessions. Public records obtained by No Left Turn in Education prove the contrary: NCDPI was aware of these materials, assisted and supported their development, and hid evidence from the public at Truitt’s direction.
Emails between the NCDPI Office of Early Learning and NC-ELN show officials concealed content of the trainings to ensure contract approval. Emails single out teachers who “don’t see race in the classroom” as incorrectly teaching through a “race-neutral” lens. These documents indicate Supt. Truitt gave the order to remove the CRT-based materials from the NC-ELN website before the State Board of Education vote.
Under NCDPI direction, UNC-Frank Porter Graham pulled the documents with the expressed purpose of concealing information from the public. The Office of Early Learning, responsible for K-3 literacy rates in NC, spent considerable time assisting the NC-ELN in this effort.
“This pattern of deceit is unacceptable and shows the extreme measures education bureaucrats take to hide usage of taxpayer dollars in pushing race-based ideologies onto our most vulnerable kids,” said Dr. Nancy Andersen, president of No Left Turn in Education’s North Carolina Chapter. “NC early literacy rates are abysmal, but the Office of Early Learning is focused on misdirecting funds for race-essentialism in pre-K. Based on the findings of our report, we call upon our state government and its agencies to dissolve contractual relationships with the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Additionally, NLTE demands the state perform a full financial audit of the NCDPI.”
The June 2022 report, North Carolina Racializes Preschool Educator Professional Development, is available here.