Parents have feared the worst: that public schools are indoctrinating their children with racist lessons that teach them to hate America. Former California teacher Kali Fontanilla appeared on the popular TV show Dr. Phil show this week to expose the truth and confirm those fears are well-founded:
“I’m here to tell the American people that” Critical Race Theory (CRT) is “being taught to the students,” Kali told the nation.
CRT is a toxic worldview that says all the events and ideas in the world around us must be explained in terms of racial identities, and it tells students that public institutions must atone for “systemic racism” by treating people differently depending on their skin color. After exposing CRT in California last year in an exclusive Goldwater Institute video that was featured heavily in the Dr. Phil interview, Kali has become an outspoken advocate against racist lies that teach children to judge each other based on their race. Kali has urged parents to support Goldwater’s policy solution: a landmark Academic Transparency reform that requires schools to do publish their learning materials online, shining a light on what schools are teaching.
But Kali wasn’t looking to become an activist; she spent years teaching English as a second language to high schoolers in the Salinas school district, and she cared deeply for her students. She was shocked to find out what they were learning in a mandatory “ethnic studies” class, and Kali felt she had no choice but to speak out.
“From start to finish, it had this hyper-race-focused narrative throughout the whole lessons,” Kali said on Dr. Phil.
Kali discovered classroom activities like a “privilege quiz” that made students compare and contrast each other’s gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. Another exercise involved a mock trial for “various persons implicated in…genocide against Native Californians.”
As Kali summed up in the Orange County Register: “Just about every single lesson had some element of Critical Race Theory in it.”
Kali’s testimony dismantles the prevailing narrative from public education officials who are desperately trying to conceal what’s happening in our public K-12 system: children’s minds being filled with a toxic ideology claiming that America was founded on institutional racism and that the American Dream is a lie.
CRT is “being taught in K-12,” Dr. Phil explained. “There are school districts that have hired consultants that have come in and trained the entire school district on Critical Race Theory so they can go back and teach it, not ubiquitously, but across the school district.” He added: “If the indictment is against some 10- or 12-year-old child in a classroom today being held accountable for what some of his or her ancestors did 200 years ago, that I’ve got a problem with.”
And it’s all happening amid a nationwide literacy crisis, with recent statistics showing that reading test scores for 9-year-olds dropped to their lowest point since 1990. “Why are we doing this when we have a literacy crisis?” Kali said on Dr. Phil. “Why are we taking time away from traditional subjects and making sure that they’re doing this hyper-race-focused class in ninth grade?”
What’s the solution? It starts with arming parents with knowledge. “Demand that your school district’s lessons and materials be made accessible online, so you can see what your child is being taught,” Kali said last year in a PragerU video.
That’s exactly why the Goldwater Institute crafted our Academic Transparency Act to protect parents’ right to find out what their children are learning in taxpayer-funded schools. This revolutionary reform, which Goldwater has advanced in legislative chambers across the country, requires public schools to publish a list of instructional materials and activities used during the academic year on a publicly accessible portion of their website so that parents can exercise informed school choice.
Goldwater is also working to ensure children learn the true story about our nation’s rich history and founding ideals, rather than be indoctrinated with CRT’s race-based nonsense. In states around the country, Goldwater is promoting our reforms to end CRT-based racial discrimination in public education and stop the flood of taxpayer resources used to amplify CRT-based “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programming. And while CRT and other leftist dogmas tell children the American Dream is a lie, Goldwater’s new children’s book A Is for the American Dream shows them that the American Dream is for everyone—and inspires them to pursue their own.
Families deserve better than radical racial politics. That’s why Goldwater is fighting this toxic ideology every step of the way. And with the help of bold advocates like Kali, we’re going to win the fight for America’s future.
