On the campaign trail of late in my quest to be Idaho’s superintendent, I converse with people who are concerned about the issue of critical race theory. However, invariably when pressed, they admit that CRT is NOT being taught by the teachers in their neighborhood schools they know. No, it’s the teachers elsewhere, invariably California. (The propaganda about CRT is pervasive.)
A fellow I talked with yesterday had an adamant answer: get rid of superintendents, fire the teachers and destroy the National Education Association. He absolutely knew what he was talking about as evidenced by the passion in his voice.
Because I have been in education a goodly amount of time, I was reminded yesterday at the Twin Falls County Fair yesterday of two legislators decades ago, Robert Forrey and Gene Winchester, who fulminated about the NEA’s hiring quota for homosexuals. It became their cause.
Forrey, Winchester and I appeared on Twin Falls KLIX radio station for a debate about education a few weeks before the election. Winchester had submitted a letter to the Times News proclaiming the truth about the hiring quota for homosexuals.
During the debate at the radio station, I pointed out that as an IEA regional director, I was as close to the NEA they were going to get. I challenged them with some passion – I was insulted by these two — to tell the audience whom I had hired. Silence. I pressed hard. “Come on, gentlemen, tell the audience whom I had hired in the school system in Idaho or in the Magic Valley.”
Of course, they could not because their claims were pure propaganda. Hiring decisions were then made by principals and superintendents of the school districts with the concurrence of their respective school boards, as they should be. That is the same system now.
During one station break after my challenge, Forrey said to me, “You keep this up, and I will slug you in the face.” ( didn’t stop, and he didn’t slug me.)
Yes, the big lie was spread about hiring quotas for homosexuals in Idaho then. Now it’s CRT’s turn.
Is this type of propaganda powerful? Absolutely. We know it worked in Germany. It also works here. It is working here.
