Lawrence Jones slams federally recommended activist network looking to ‘destroy' the education system 'from within’
‘Fox & Friends’ reporter Lawrence Jones discusses Department of Education COVID-19 reopening handbook that links to activist network and recommends ‘race and social emotional learning’
"Fox & Friends" reporter Lawrence Jones knocked the Biden Administration's federal school guidance promoting an activist group known as the "Abolitionist Teaching Network." A Fox News investigation uncovered website links to the groups’ materials in the Department of Education’s COVID-19 reopening handbook.
Jones questioned whether activists should have a place in U.S. public school classrooms and asserted that the group’s mission was to "destroy" the education system "from within."
"This is not a conversation about reform," Jones said. "The big question parents that are at home watching this package should ask themselves is: are they okay with reforms or do they want to be just like this group that wants to burn down the system?"
BIDEN ADMIN PROMOTES RADICAL GROUP PUSHING CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN SCHOOLS
Bettina Love, the group's co-founder, touted her "social-emotional learning" program in a July 2020 meeting and said that the curriculum was to be viewed through a model centered on "equity."
"I’ve been teaching now for 19 years and I’ve been doing this work of completely disrupting systems in elementary schools and school systems for this 19 years," said Love.
Later in the clip, another board member of the group, David Stovall, said that it was important for the Network to be "diligent" and "explicit" in its fight against White supremacy when educating children.
Various members of academia and the media have asserted that critical race theory is not a tangible curriculum and rather a construct created by Republicans to attack Democrats.
Meanwhile, the National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union, said that critical race theory was "reasonable and appropriate" for kids.
The union also announced it would fund research on "the organizations attacking educators doing anti-racist work."
Jones told "Fox & Friends" that the Abolitionist Teaching Network’s messaging appeared to be an example of a progressive and Marxist worldview wherein activist teachers impose their ideologies on other teachers.
"It’s the belief that America cannot be reformed, you can’t fix some of the issues that we may have—that you gotta burn the system down."
The Department of Education linked to the Abolitionist Teaching Network’s "Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning" in its handbook intended to help schools reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. The handbook also recommend how schools could spend billions of taxpayer dollars they collectively received through the American Rescue Plan.
Hours after publication, a Department of Education spokesman told Fox News: "The Department does not endorse the recommendations of this group, nor do they reflect our policy positions. It was an error in a lengthy document to include this citation."
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Jones urged parents to beat these "thought leaders" to the punch, and be attentive to what their children are or are not learning.
Fox News' Ethan Barton contributed to this report
