GOP Rep. Tim Walberg grills Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on admin's endorsement of 1619 Project
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testifies at hearing regarding Dept. of Education's policies and priorities.
FIRST ON FOX – A Biden Department of Education official has claimed that "school discipline" is part of a "racist system," blaming so-called "whiteness," while she worked for a left-wing education organization, Fox News Digital found.
Kayla Patrick has worked at the DOE's Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development since February 2022, according to her LinkedIn. In 2021, she said, "school discipline is a symptom of a racist and punitive system that often fails to see children as children."
"Instead of helping students to learn and grow from mistakes, educators send them into the office, or send them home, or even sometimes call the police. And Black students are more likely to be offended, affected by that," she said.
Department of Education official, Kayla Patrick, claims racism is baked into school discipline. (FOX NEWS | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Patrick is yet another DOE official who hails from the "equity-driven" Education Trust, an organization funded by the Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
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Patrick believes that equity can only be achieved through addressing "systemic causes."
Equity is a key priority for the Biden administration. On Biden's first day in office, the president signed an executive order to address "systemic racism" and push equity into all federal agencies. The DOE alone has been spending hundreds of millions on equity-focused programs and grants.
President Biden has pushed an equity agenda throughout all federal agencies, including at the DOE led by Miguel Cardona. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
Patrick went on to refer to a concept steeped in critical race theory. Intersectionality was coined by a critical race theorist named Kimberlé Crenshaw and holds that multiple systems of discrimination can intersect, creating multiple layers of oppression for an individual or group.
Patrick said, "Black girls are more likely to be disciplined, frankly, because Black girls experience race and sex-based discrimination in classrooms, and they are disciplined often for simply being Black."
Patrick then provided an example of how Black girls are discriminated against in K-12 education.
"For example, in other settings, we would consider self-advocacy or assertiveness a leadership skill. But when Black girls do it in schools they are often suspended for being loud, defiant or talking back," she said.
"These aren't just consequences," Patrick said of school discipline. "These are actions that leave too many Black girls stuck in the school to poverty pipeline. And this doesn't just happen because Black students inherently behave different than White students. They absolutely don't. This happens because racism is baked into school discipline and dress code policies."
Patrick also blamed "whiteness," a mindset she claims some White educators possess. "Whiteness" means the quality of being White in skin color.
The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
"In this country, nearly 80% of the teachers are White. And sometimes their mindsets are based solely in whiteness. So that means when they come into school, they have predisposed mindsets about who black children are, what they need to wear, and how they need to behave. And so instead of celebrating their identities and cultures, schools often embrace them," she said.
"If we did a review of school discipline policies to make sure that they weren't antiracist or sexist, we could really better serve students and make sure that they are able to stay in classrooms," she said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the DOE for comment, and they said in a statement, "This is yet another disgusting attempt to disparage a dedicated public servant who is committed to making the lives and educational experiences of all students better. The Biden-Harris Administration is focused on ensuring our nation’s schools pursue equity and opportunity for all students."
Editor's Note: This piece was updated with a statement from the DOE.