School district's “anti-racist” audit focuses on race, not education

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An “anti-racism” audit, currently underway in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) system, earned the applause of liberal parents, students, and the mainstream media. The Washington Post’s glowing article portrayed the audit as a noble effort to root out anti-minority racism in the D.C. metropolitan area.

As Accuracy in Academia has reported, the county system is more focused about promoting the leftist ideology of anti-racism over focusing on relevant and applicable education principles and concepts.

According to the audit’s supporters, the goal is to explore and examine the school district’s diversity, culture, and learning and later shake it up to adhere to anti-racist dogma. The district’s strategic initiatives leader, Stephanie Sheron, said, “This is the first time that MCPS — even though we’ve been engaged in this work — has taken a systems-level approach to analyzing our current state, so that we can proactively take the information that we get from the anti-racist audit.”

It is not the first time that the left-wing school district has re-examined itself from a race-based view. The Post pointed out that the district reviewed its social studies courses to include more information about black history in the U.S. The district was also sensitive to the race riots spurred by the death of George Floyd in police custody, especially after some of its black students shared social media videos detailing their run-ins with racism while at school. There were at least three of these types of Instagram accounts at three of its high schools: Walt Whitman, Wheaton, and Rockville.

A letter to the MCPS school board, drafted by several black alumnae from Springbrook High School specifically requested that the district should create policies that would be “directly anti-racist.” Supporters claimed that over 7,300 students, alumni and parents who reside or attended the school district had signed onto the letter.

The school district also permitted a committee of parents, staff, students, and members of the community to assist the district during the audit.

As a part of the audit, students from the fourth grade to twelfth grade will receive a “stakeholder survey” about their attitudes on race and experience learning about race. Parents and staffers received a similar survey.

Considering the mental health crisis of students due to the lockdown policies during the pandemic, in addition to faltering test scores and knowledge retention, MCPS should be more focused on education and not divisive ideology.

Also, as background, the MCPS-commissioned audit cost county taxpayers $454,860 and it was awarded to a local consulting organization called the Mid-Atlantic Consortium. The consultant group has ties to the anti-conservative and anti-religious organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC maintains a list of alleged hate groups and commonly places conservative and Christian organizations on the list, without a fair assessment or input. The consultant also claimed that it helps promote “equity in education to achieve social justice.”