The Virginia Governor’s race showed that drumming up fear about critical race theory is effective in turning out the Republican base in an election. The Republican Party of New Mexico is trying to do it here with the upcoming hearing on proposed changes to New Mexico’s Social Studies curriculum, a document that hasn’t been updated since 2009.

In other states Republicans have recruited and indoctrinated and bused protestors to school board meetings and similar kinds of hearings. The N.M. GOP will try to do the equivalent of this on Friday, November 12 at a hearing on the proposed standards.

They are trying to characterize those new standards as Critical Race Theory in order to rev up the base. Instead, we see the standards as preparing our young people for the world of tomorrow, for a world of global trade and competition, for jobs where teamwork is more important than ever. See Blue CD2 talking points on the standards.

https://www.bluecd2nm.com/social-studies-talking-points.html

Here’s how to stop this Culture War before it gets started.

Look at the standards. They are well worth taking the time to read.

 Decide for yourself if teaching this material means “trying to divide us” and telling students that “our country is bad,” as the GOP claims.

Send a comment to the PED. rule.feedback@state.nm.us

The public hearing will be held via Zoom, instead of Mabry Hall. The hearing time has been extended for the public hearing on Friday, November 12, 2021 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will also cover two other proposed rule changes.

https://zoom.us/j/95261645812?pwd=ejNMZ2Fyb2xsVWFhT2VTMWRabnRKQT09

If you know parents of school-age children, tell them about the proposed standards and their opportunity to comment on them and/or attend the Zoom-hearing on Nov. 12. Doing both is probably best, in case of any difficulties with Zoom.