Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order Tuesday banning the use of critical race theory in Louisiana’s public school system from preschool through 12th grade.
The governor’s office said Critical Race Theory (CRT) contains “divisive teachings that teach students to view life through the lens of race and victimhood,” and Landry believes students should learn about “American exceptionalism and the principles enshrined in the state and federal constitutions of the United States of America that recognize the equal worth of every individual.”
“This order is a much-needed sigh of relief for parents and students across our state, especially now that children are heading back to school,” Landry said in a statement. “Teaching children that they are currently or destined to be oppressed or an oppressor because of their race and background is wrong and has no place in our Louisiana classrooms.”
“I am confident that under Dr. Brumley’s leadership, our education system will continue to move in the right direction, giving top priority to American values and common sense teaching,” he added.
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) voted unanimously in January to reappoint Dr. Cade Brumley as Louisiana State Superintendent of Education.
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Then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry testified on Thursday, March 30, 2023, during the House Judiciary Committee’s special subcommittee hearing on arming the federal government in Missouri v. Biden. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The executive order states: “Inherently divisive concepts such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its derivatives teach students to view the world through the lens of race and assume that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive and that some students are victims.”
The governor’s office says these “inherently divisive concepts are contrary to America’s founding ideals: liberty, justice, equality, opportunity, and unity among its people.”
The order refers to Legislature Act 326 of 2024, which “establishes that parents of children in public schools have the right to know that a school shall not discriminate against a child by teaching the child that he or she is currently or will be oppressed or will be an oppressor because of his or her race or nationality.”
Jeff Landry, then-Attorney General of Louisiana, speaks during a House Subcommittee on Arming the Federal Government hearing on Thursday, March 30, 2023. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Landry directed Brumley to continue to review the Department of Education’s rules, notices, regulations, contracts and policies and to take action to remove or, if necessary, report to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education any materials that support theories that “a person is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, because of his or her race or gender.”
A notebook and a pencil on a desk in a school classroom (iStock)
Brumley, who has served as state inspector general since 2020, is also instructed to report any content that promotes the belief that “a person’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex” or that “a person is responsible because of his or her race or sex for acts committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”
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The order prohibits materials that claim “meritocracy or characteristics such as a strong work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by a particular race or gender to oppress another race or gender” or “encourage students to discriminate against anyone based on color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law.”
