Parents in America's heartland push back against critical race theory: 'We are the last line of defense'

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Lansing stay-at-home mom wins school board primary in fight against critical race theory

Amy Cawvey joins Fox News Digital for an exclusive interview

Parents in the heartland hardly expected to find themselves battling critical race theory at their doorstep. But while critics focused on fighting the polarizing ideology in places like New York, California and Virginia, CRT advocates have been making a quiet push to implement K-12 curriculums in suburban towns across the midwest. 

For months, critics in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Nebraska have tried to push back against their respective school districts' noticeable nod toward the controversial curriculum. But with little national media spotlighting or outside support, frustrated parents have been forced to take on a more aggressive approach.

Amy Cawvey, a-stay-at-home mom from Lansing, Kansas, registered as a School Board candidate when she noticed a troubling pattern in her daughter's school. After a grueling, months-long primary race, Cawvey and two other parents managed to land the top three spots. 

PARENTS RUN FOR SCHOOL BOARDS TO FIGHT ‘POISENOUS’ CRT

"We are the last line of defense against the indoctrination of our children," Cawvey told Fox News ahead of the general election for three open seats in November.

The mom-of-three said she noticed a drastic "shift" in the quality of education that was provided to her two older children, versus her youngest.

"I have two that are older, they're in their late 20s and … I've seen their years in school and I never had this problem like this. I'd seen slight issues coming up but nothing like critical race theory. And then my daughter started school in 2010 and it's only progressively gotten worse," she said. 

At first, it began with "little things that we could handle at home," Cawvey continued. "But now it snowballed into other things."

For other parents in the heartland, Cawvey's story is not uncommon.

WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY?

Robynn Hora, a mom from Slinger, Wisconsin, was shocked to discover a "treasure trove of CRT propaganda for teachers" as part of a required course to volunteer-substitute at her children's school. After raising her concerns at a public board meeting, she and several other parents formed a CRT audit group to regularly review their children's grade school curriculum. What they found startled them, she told Fox News.

"What we are finding is that there are some courses that are heavily laden with it already," mostly in AP classes, which are affiliated with local universities, Hora said. "We're also seeing a significant amount of CRT embedded in the resources that are made available to the teachers, which they get from the state, from the government, and from the teachers' unions. They're just laden with gender issues and racial issues that they're creating themselves."

Wisconsin joined the list of states considering bills that would ban teaching ideas linked to critical race theory in June. 

NEBRASKA GOVERNOR BACKS UNIVERSITY'S ANTI-CRT RESOLUTION AMID BACKLASH

In Nebraska, the debate over critical race theory has reached new heights as the University of Nebraska Board of Regents considers a resolution introduced by Republican Jim Pillen, a regent who is also running for governor, that would oppose "any imposition of Critical Race Theory in curriculum." 

Matt Innis, an electrical contractor who was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in 2020, told Fox News that he’s in favor of teaching accurate history, but that advocates of CRT are pushing a destructive agenda. Innis has been traveling across Nebraska holding public meetings warning against CRT and affiliated curriculums. 

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"The Department of Education has lost the trust of Nebraskans by pushing critical race theory and comprehensive sex education. We're educating Nebraskans how to spot nice-sounding CRT buzz words like ‘equity’ and ‘anti-racism.' Critical Race Theory is really Critical Racist Theory."