WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — U.S. Senator Tom Cotton has introduced the Stop CRT Act, a bill that would stop federal funds from being sent to schools that teach critical race theory.
The legislation also reinstates a Trump-era executive order that banned the federal government and federal contractors from using training with a curriculum that taught the history of systemic racism and white privilege.
President Biden rescinded that executive order during his first week in January 2021, calling Trump's executive order a "harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training.”
Critical race theory focuses on the idea that racism is systemic in America's institutions and "they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society."
While there is little to no evidence of it being taught in K-12 public schools, many conservatives view the concepts as an "effort to rewrite American history."
Cotton compared critical race theory in the United States to "nothing more than state-sanctioned racism."
In a statement released Tuesday, July 14, Cotton asked "Why should this poisonous, neo-Marxist ideology be funded by the federal government?"
The Stop CRT Act of 2021 also bans funding to colleges and universities that "compel faculty members, students, or any other individual to affirm" the principles of critical race theory.
Cotton said that the legislation however did not take away individual's rights to access materials about critical race theory for research or independent study or prevent anyone from exercising "lawful, protected speech."
North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives.