Granite State Times

An amendment was proposed by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) to ban federal funding for institutions and organizations that teach critical race theory (CRT).

Critical race theory has been the subject of frequent criticism in recent months by the GOP as an example of what some see as problematic teaching. The bill did not receive the support of the two Democratic senators from New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.

Cotton introduced an amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that would ban the use of federal funds for teaching critical race theory in schools. The amendment is called the "Stop CRT Act."

Ahead of the vote, Cotton said, “They want to teach our children that America is not a good nation but a racist nation. Those teachings are wrong, and our tax dollars should not support them. My amendment will ensure that federal funds aren’t used to indoctrinate children as young as pre-K to hate America," according to Just the News.

Nicholas Ensley Mitchell, assistant professor of curriculum studies at the University of Kansas, had a different viewpoint on the issue. Teachers will "either 'distort' history in the eyes of lawmakers who say it’s wrong to teach that America was racist from the start," he wrote in The Conversation. "Or they will distort history by ignoring the fact that -- as the U.S. Supreme Court once noted itself in 1857 -- black people were 'not intended' to be regarded as 'citizens' under the U.S. Constitution and therefore had no constitutional rights."

Cotton also pointed out examples of what prompted his introduction of the amendment, which mainly aims to prevent schools from teaching that white people are inherently racist, which he claims is a core tenet of CRT. Thirty public school districts in 15 states have assigned a book inspired by CRT called “Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness” by Anastasia Higginbotham, which depicts “whiteness” as the devil, according to the New York Post.

Tara Yosso, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, said CRT can be an approach used to theorize, examine and challenge the ways that race and racism implicitly and explicitly impact social structures, practices and discourses.

Daniel HoSang, professor of ethnicity, race and migration and American studies at Yale University, also spoke in support of CRT. “It's taking us out of racism as a psychological and emotional question, and is focusing much more on the structures, the policies that people create that govern our lives,” he told The Texas Tribune.

The amendment ultimately passed with a vote of 50-49, mostly along party lines. All Senate Republicans voted in favor of the amendment, while all Democrats, except Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted against it, including Hassan and Shaheen.