Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators Aims High

June 14, 2021: After publishing this post, the Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators (ACBE) told me that they had reached out to the head of Alaska Parents’ Rights in Education (APRE) and suggested they come to the table to sit down and have a real conversation. APRE’s response was to block ACBE's representative.

The Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators (ACBE) aims high in the face of a coordinated far-right astroturfed assault that seeks to ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum across the country.

In February of this year, ACBE organized to champion equity in education for communities of color. The group strives to ensure people of color are treated with equity and equality, and Alaskans are taking note. The group's Facebook page is now liked and followed by over 1,000 people.

ACBE sees its role in Alaska educational systems as threefold — to promote the health and safety of educators, students, and communities of color, to promote equity in academic opportunities and curriculum, and to encourage the hiring and retention of educators of color.

The group recently hosted a "Day of Action" event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The event sought to reiterate ACBE's commitment to educators, the importance of teaching full and accurate U.S. history and current events, in addition to raising awareness about the dangers of lying to students about the existence and persistence of structural and systemic racism, and all forms of oppression.

Counter group Alaska Parents' Right in Education (APRE) is a local chapter of a larger far-right national group based in Oregon that believes teaching the Critical Race Theory curriculum is racist. The national group currently has chapters in 8 states, and its Alaska Chapter is a notorious spreader of far-right propaganda, talking points, and misinformation on mask-wearing and matters of equity.

A few of APRE's members have attended Anchorage School Board Meetings complaining about CRT, which isn't even being taught in the district's classrooms.

Other Facebook pages attached to APRE's Facebook group include former Chair of the Alaska Republican Party Tuckerman Babcock, Judy Norton Eledge for School Board, and far-right publication Alaska Watchman. Eagle River Assembly Person Jamie Allard is a listed member in addition to Jamie Donley — wife of Anchorage School Board Member Don Donley.

I reached out to the Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators about their thoughts on APRE's efforts to ban Critical Race Theory in the state and recent public statements made by Anchorage Assembly person Jamie Allard and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy about the polarizing subject.

Rozlyn Grady-Wyche of the Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators told me via email that their group believes Alaska Parents' Rights in Education is working to ban critical race theory out of ignorance "blindly following the talking points and marching orders from Fox News, OAN, Must Read Alaska, and other right-wing media without questioning what it is they are being fed and made to do."

Grady-Wyche says that APRE is "not thinking critically" and argues that unless "APRE's solipsistic behavior is checked and corrected, it will continue to have acute and chronic negative consequences such as dangerous and costly errors, repeated mistakes, bad decisions, failed systems, inaction when action is needed, the giving of bad advice, inaccurate assumptions, the poor design of training programs, and the poor evaluation of educational curricula."

ACBE also says that recent public statements made by Jamie Allard and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy about Critical Race Theory don't detract from the group's efforts writing that they "will continue to champion equity in education for communities of color to achieve equality regardless of who is in office."

The irony in the far-right's efforts to have Critical Race Theory banned from classrooms hasn't gone unnoticed by Grady-Wyche, who says that CRT can't even be taught in our K-12 public school system.

"That's what makes Alaska Parents Rights and Save Anchorage’s arguments so silly," Grady-Wyche says, stating that "CRT is designed and delivered as advanced studies for law school students. If our kids are studying Critical Race Theory, that means they are about ready to take and pass the bar exam, in which case Alaska Parents Rights and Save Anchorage should be praising our educators for such student achievement instead of vilifying them."

"At the end of the day, the truth is that racism played an incontrovertible role in our nation’s history. If you can’t teach that, you can’t teach the truth," says Grady-Wyche, who believes that teachers need to be able to teach facts and do their jobs and that all people should care about supporting teachers to help build a more equitable and inclusive society.

ACBE says that the group will continue to stick to its priorities and keep pushing for change that the group says is needed in education.

You can learn more about the Alaska Coalition of BIPOC Educators and their efforts on their Facebook page.