Elmbrook Schools Board Hearing Over 'Equity Principles' Contended

BROOKFIELD, WI — More than 40 people attended an Elmbrook School Board meeting Tuesday to talk to board members about how race is discussed in district classrooms on May 25.

Elmbrook parents denounced a district proposal to teach about the history of race, with some equating it with a Republican-led campaign against so-called critical race theory. But district officials denied that the district was secretly trying to incorporate the controversial theory into Elmbrook curriculum.

"Our curriculum will certainly deal with difficult topics as we teach our students critical thinking skills," Scott Wheeler, school board president, said. "We teach students how to think, not what to think."

The board was looking for feedback on the district's proposed "equity principles." The district's equity nonnegotiable work group came up with the principles, whose goal is to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in Elmbrook Schools, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Equity Principles

"As a District committed to equity, we seek to eliminate opportunity gaps based on student and family identities and their intersectionality such as, but not limited to, race, color, creed, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, religion, sexual and gender identity, economic status, linguistics, age, and physical, mental, emotional, learning disability status so that all students thrive," a draft district document said.

The work group started after students and alumni signed a petition in June 2020, the Journal Sentinel reported. "We are concerned that the students who are currently enrolled in your schools will graduate without the knowledge, empathy and critical thinking skills that can allow them to understand both the historical and present realities of racial and social injustice," part of a letter in the article said.

Community Reaction

Attendees offered widely different opinions on the proposal and spoke about it on a livestream provided by the district.

"African Americans are 1 percent of the population of Brookfield," one parent said. "It's about changing the curriculum to make everyone feel like they matter."

"What we're talking about today, is really critical race theory, which is Marxist political doctrine in disguise," another parent of four said.

Critical race theory is a highly debated topic in Wisconsin and across the country. The debate over the subject has brewed over the past month between the two large political parties, National Public Radio's Morning Edition reported.

Critical race theory is "a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship," the American Bar Association said.

"It critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers," the association said. "CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others."

A petition named "Education over Activism" has gained more than 1,000 signatures since June 1, the Journal Sentinel reported. Elmbrook "continues to teach the curriculum with embedded CRT without the consent of the parents," the petition said.