Maryland schools asked parents, students to fill out “anti-racist” survey

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A Maryland public school system recently sent out a survey to parents and students to determine racism and inequity in the school system. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), one of the largest public school districts in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, sent out the survey as a part of its Anti-Racist System Audit.

The goal, the school said, is to help bureaucrats learn whether their school system is racist and not inclusive to minorities. Specifically, the survey results will allegedly tell the survey designers about which policies and practices create unequal outcomes.

The audit, which cost county taxpayers $450,000, claimed that its survey included questions on racial, ethnic, and gender disparities. It also asked questions about language proficiency and socioeconomic status.

The audit is being conducted by the Bethesda-based Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium in partnership with MCPS Office of Strategic Initiatives. One of the bureaucrats, an “equity specialist” named Edvin Hernández, said that it is an opportunity for everyone to chime in. “We want to make sure that parents and guardians and everyone in MCPS have the opportunity to voice what barriers they see in our educational system that is keeping students from academic success,” he told the local news outlet MyMCM.

The same bureaucrat said that the survey was not intended to shame respondents.

Another bureaucrat, John Landesman, said that ‘the whole idea is to make sure everyone feels safe in MCPS.” Landesman is the executive director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

The county school system claimed that it does not teach Critical Race Theory. However, the anti-racism audit covers the same material that Critical Race Theory does.

In 2020, AIA reported about the school system paying for the expensive anti-racism audit. The consultant group, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, 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.”