Thanks to a recent lawsuit settlement, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is walking back its requirements for teachers to abide by "woke" curriculum standards.
Thomas Breth of the Thomas More Society, which filed the suit against the PDE in April of 2023, says former Governor Tom Wolf (D) imposed these guidelines on his way out of office last year.
Schools had to adopt "Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education Program Framework Guidelines" (CR-SE), which required teachers to create lessons and learning environments for students to "identify and question economic, political, and social power structures in the school" and to "disrupt harmful institutional practices, policies, and norm," according to Fox News.
"It's just a further attempt by the progressives and the liberals to force upon parents and students and educators their ideological tenets," Breth submits. "These guidelines tell you what you must believe and what you must be able to demonstrate that you believe. It just went beyond the pale."
This is the same department that was stopped by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from requiring all students, staff, and visitors in public schools to wear masks in the wake of the COVID pandemic, so Breth says this is not the first or only instance of liberals overstepping their boundaries.
"There have been countless examples where these bureaucrats in the various agencies within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – unelected individuals – are trying to mandate their personal and political beliefs," the special counsel relays. "We continue to fight, and we anticipate that we're going to continue to fight these fights, because they don't give up easily."
In this case, the state education department has agreed to eliminate its requirement for schools to enforce the teaching guidelines the lawsuit deemed "woke."
Just days after settling the suit in November, the department issued new suggestions under their new "Common Ground Framework."
Educators are still encouraged to "understand the importance of differences in marginalized learners and historically underrepresented groups," such as gender identity, according to the department's website. They are also advised to "create an equitable learning environment by challenging and debunking stereotypes and biases about the intelligence, academic ability, and behavior of historically marginalized learners."
