Senators Call Out Department Of Education
Lincoln, NE (October 17, 2022) A group of state senators wants a legislative investigation into the State Department of Education. Senator Dave Murman, who’s a member of the Education Committee, says a department website that was supposed to provide schools with pandemic recovery materials, provided what he called left wing political material.
“Educators were encouraged to take action and were provided with pdf documents entitled ‘Winning racial justice in our schools — resisting right wing attacks on critical race theory’.”
Murman and several Legislative colleagues said they want the investigation to determine the extent that the Department of Education has been promoting CRT.
“The Public Schools should educate children on the facts of history” said Senator Steve Erdman of Bayard, “not indoctrinate them with critical race theory, which deliberately distorts the facts in order to push an enormous left wing woke narrative about our nation’s founding fathers and the history of our country.”
The material in question was a link entitled “CRT Toolkit” from the front page of a website intended to guide Public Schools in steps to take in pandemic recovery.
Senator Steve Halloran of Hastings said it’s ironic that the late Martin Luther King wanted people to be judged by their character, not their skin color.
“Now we have a culture in our Education system in Nebraska that wants to separate our children by the color of their skin. If they have dark skin, colored skin, they are the oppressed. And, if they are white, they are the oppressor.”
Murman, who is a member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, said the controversial link was noticed by a member of his staff who was monitoring the Department of Education website. Asked what he wants out of an investigation, he said some States have passed legislation banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in their schools, and also comprehensive sex education in the schools.” He went on to say there have also been calls to eliminate the Department of Education. “We’re going to follow the facts and wherever that leads.”
Following the News Conference in which the Senators voiced their concerns, The Department of Education issued a statement in response:
The Nebraska Department of Education is aware that several state senators voiced their concerns during a press conference about a document they claim is posted on NDE’s Launch Nebraska website.
The document in question is not on Launch Nebraska and after a thorough search, staff did not find any record that the document was ever posted directly on the Launch Nebraska site. The document may have been a separate link from a resource page that was linked to the NDE site but was removed after it was further vetted.
“The Nebraska Department of Education is always responsive to concerns from our partners, lawmakers, and the public about our work,” said Commissioner Matthew Blomstedt. “The Senators that held this press conference never reached out to discuss or address their concerns. Instead, the first this was raised as a concern was through a media site that never verified the information through the NDE, and only reached out for comment within an hour of publishing.”
The Launch Nebraska website was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a resource for schools and educators. The website provided guidance from the Commissioner, flexibilities on rules and regulations, best practices for schools, professional learning for teachers and plans for safe returns to school. Nebraska returned to in person learning more quickly than any other state in the nation through the leadership of the NDE and the solid local leadership across the state.
