The Franklin School Board has chosen a new school district administrator to replace retiring Judy Mueller, but isn’t ready to announce who it is just yet.

Today a school board member responded to a Franklin parent who raised concerns. The parent told the school board member in part:

I have found that the three candidates chosen are quite polarizing. None of the candidates are strong advocates for student and academic achievement. Instead, their focus is on pushing their own ideologies. I’m shocked we aren’t interviewing candidates that are focused on increasing math and reading scores here in Franklin. Perhaps we should take our time, and do our due diligence, to ensure we find the best candidate?

The school board member replied in part:

The search firm we used recommended a slate of 6 candidates which the Board (with the exception of Dr. Khan, he was out of town) interviewed last week Monday. That list was then narrowed to the 3 candidates you referred to in your email. This week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we interviewed the finalists again, asking that they make a ten minute presentation to us on a specified topic; Recruitment, training and retention of highly qualified staff and with an equity, diversity and inclusion focus. Following these presentations, we interviewed the candidates again with a new set of questions, (all Board members were there for this as well as the final Thursday evening meeting). During the Thursday evening meeting the entire Board debated and debated regarding the best choice for the District. A decision was made, (this is what I am unable to share at this time) a contract to present was discussed and the meeting adjourned. The offer will be made to the finalist today by Mike Spragg, Board President. We do believe it will take a few days before the finalist accepts the contract as there may be some back and forth regarding it.

Take note of what the candidates were asked to discuss: Recruitment, training and retention of highly qualified staff and with an equity, diversity and inclusion focus.

While I appreciate the school board member’s willingness to communicate the mention about a focus on equity and diversity is ridiculous. I feared this might be an emphasis of the administration.

Christopher F. Rufo is founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center. He’s the foremost authority on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in America and has written the following that is very important:

There are a series of euphemisms deployed by (CRT) supporters to describe critical race theory, including “equity,” “social justice,” “diversity and inclusion,” and “culturally responsive teaching.” Critical race theorists, masters of language construction, realize that “neo-Marxism” would be a hard sell. Equity, on the other hand, sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality. But the distinction is vast and important. Indeed, equality—the principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, defended in the Civil War, and codified into law with the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—is explicitly rejected by critical race theorists. To them, equality represents “mere nondiscrimination” and provides “camouflage” for white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression. 

|In contrast to equality, equity as defined and promoted by critical race theorists is little more than reformulated Marxism.

The aforementioned parent is correct. Priority #1 for this school board and the incoming superintendent should be student achievement. Disguised CRT should NOT be a focus, period.