Op-Ed Rough Draf

Op-Ed Rough Draft:

Merriam-Webster defines the citizen as “a person who legally belongs to a

country and has the rights and protection of that country”, it is also the most important role of

our political system. Some might say that the positions of Senator, Governor, President, or

Justice are more important, they would be wrong. In a democracy, the citizen is a voter and has

the opportunity, even the obligation, to participate in a way that determines the governance of the

state. Being a democratic republic makes America a member of what is still a very small club of

nations, that give so much power to the people, but as the saying goes, “with great power, comes

great responsibility”. It is not enough to just be an individual who goes and votes, with no

knowledge of the people, positions, or system, we must ensure that the goal is to have informed

citizens. We the people, in Texas, and around the country, must demand our government make

civics education a priority to ensure that young people are being taught how to research problems

adequately and make a change in their democracy.

Throughout the 87th legislative session, there were almost two dozen civics-

related bills on the docket here in Texas, and I had the privilege to work with several

organizations to push for comprehensive civics education. The goal was to make it so that

students here in Texas become more knowledgeable of our democratic system and ideally were

introduced to a curriculum that would allow them to get involved in their communities, taking on

projects where they interact with leaders to make a change. This was not the final bill that

passed, instead, we got HB 3979, which led to the now-infamous memo in Southlake where an

administrator suggested that if a teacher is going to teach about the Holocaust, they should also

provide an “alternative view”. Needless to say, this is a major step backward, and while the

memo was retracted, it shows that the legislature’s attempt to have an impact on civics was a

complete failure that only led to more confusion/anger amongst educators. The question Texans

and people all across the country need to be asking themselves is why would this law be the one

that gets passed and what was the objective of the people who wrote it. The answer is critical

race theory and January sixth.

If you watched anything about the Virginia Governor’s election, you’ve probably heard

the phrase critical race theory (CRT), and maybe even believe that it is being taught in schools,

especially considering that the Governor-Elect promises to ban it on his first day in office.

Newsflash: A curriculum of critical race theory is not being taught anywhere in the country

because it does not exist. Britannica defines critical race theory as an “ intellectual and social

movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is

not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but

a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of

colour”.Conservative pundits and politicians have taken an opposition stance to a higher

education theory, or framework that says what many already see as fact, that the racial divide in

this country, or anywhere else is due to institutional problems made by people who did not see all

people as equal. It also says that some of those institutional barriers still exist today. While this is

an important conversation to have as a society and we all should do what we can to break down

these barriers, it is not in our schools. What is in our schools is history, and we need to ensure we

are teaching an accurate history of our county. That is how we live up to the American dream.

In the 88th session and in local school boards across the state, we must demand that our

community leaders continue to advocate for engaging civics to be taught and, regardless of its