Lance Izumi exposes the "Great Parent Revolt"—a nationwide uprising against critical race theory (CRT) in schools, where parents, from all backgrounds, reject racial indoctrination like "privilege walks" and fixed hierarchies labeling whites as oppressors. Grassroots groups like Moms for Liberty (200 chapters, 100K members) sue districts, flip school boards, and file records requests (e.g., a Rhode Island mother’s 160 requests), even battling unions like the AFT in court. Immigrants from authoritarian regimes lead the charge, framing CRT as "racial Marxism" enforced by an "education deep state," with victories in elections and lawsuits reshaping curriculum battles. [Automatically generated summary]
Now, obviously, so much of what we're talking about today has to do with the education of children and teaching them the way that they should go.
That's why I wanted to talk to Lance Izumi.
He's the senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute.
He's the co-author of a new book called The Great Parent Revolt, How Parents and Grassroots Leaders Are Fighting Critical Race Theory in America's Schools.
Lance, thank you so much for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you very much, Andrew.
It's a great pleasure and an honor to be on your show with you.
Oh, thank you.
You know, you talk about the Great Parent Revolt, and all of us hope this is happening.
Let me ask you first, what is it?
Is there such a thing as the Great Parent Revolt?
No, I think absolutely.
I think you're seeing that all across the country.
And the reason why we wrote this book is because these parents are revolting for a number of reasons, but one of the most important reasons that we're seeing recently is they're revolting against the imposition and indoctrination of their kids in the classroom with critical race theory.
And so what we're seeing is that these schools across America, it doesn't matter whether you're in a red state or purple state or blue state, you're seeing this type of indoctrination being force-fed to kids all across America.
And parents are revolting at the grassroots.
And they're saying that, hey, this is not right.
And, you know, it doesn't matter whether they happen to be Democrats or Republicans even.
You know, they don't want their kids to be divided based upon race and made to dislike and hate each other.
And they because they see that this, in the end, is not going to work out for them when they become adults and hopefully become part of a successful multi-racial society.
Well, one of the things I keep hearing every time parents say we don't want to hear critical race theory, everybody, the press, everyone comes out and says they're not teaching critical race theory in the schools.
What did parents see exactly that made them feel that that's not true?
Well, I think, you know, first of all, you know, we need to understand what critical race theory is, you know, regardless of what the left labels it as, critical race theory is basically racial Marxism.
And so whereas in classical Marxism, you divided people based upon socioeconomic class, the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat, the rich versus the poor, under racial Marxism, which is basically what critical race theory is, you divide people into oppressor and oppressed classes based upon their race, with whites and sometimes Asians listed as the oppressor class and other non-whites as being part of the oppressed class.
And the problem with that is that, you know, whereas you can, you know, go up the economic ladder, which is why classical Marxism never really took off here in America, because there was such social and economic mobility, but you can't change the color of your skin, which works out great for the left, because you will always be a part of the oppressor or oppressed class, depending on the pigment of your skin.
And so therefore, you know, that's what parents are seeing in the classroom.
And one of the things we show in our book, The Great Parent Revolt, is exactly what's going on in the classroom.
And I think that's one of the important things is that this book is not just a reference book about academic theories.
This is about the experiences of parents and students and grassroots leaders with critical race theory in the classroom.
And for example, we interview a student from California named Joshua, who we changed his name.
But he tells us about his middle school experience where he was forced to take critical race theory inspired lessons and engage in them.
And for example, he was forced to stand in a so-called privilege walk where all the students would stand shoulder to shoulder.
And as the teacher at the front of the class would call out privilege traits like I am white or I am male or I am Christian, that student would have to take a step forward in front of his whole class.
And because this student that we interviewed was the only white male in the class, he felt that he was being negatively targeted because of that.
And he felt like he wasn't in a classroom anymore.
He said he felt like he was in a criminal lineup instead.
And so that's what you're seeing in these classrooms.
And regardless of what the left calls an exercise like that, it's just plain evil and wrong to make children engage in that.
So parents, I mean, we've seen parents locked out of school board meetings.
We've seen them investigated by the FBI.
We've seen them intimidated by huge government agencies.
Just this incredibly un-American assault on the right to do what you will with your own children and make sure you have some control.
What are parents doing?
Or you call it the Great Parent.
The book is called The Great Parent Revolt, How Parents and Grassroot Leaders Are Fighting Critical Race Theory in American Schools.
How are they?
They're engaging in all kinds of different activities.
I think that what's important for folks to understand is that the people we profile in our book are basically ordinary American parents who are actually doing extraordinary things because of what their kids are facing in the classroom.
For example, we profile a Rhode Island mom who wanted to know about the critical race theory curriculum in her daughter's classroom, and she was being stonewalled by the district.
And so when she kept pressing, the principal said, well, why don't you file a public records request?
Well, they didn't know what they were getting into because she ended up filing not one or two or 10.
She filed 160 different public records requests.
And in response, the district threatened to sue her for filing so many public records requests.
But they eventually backed down because she eventually got legal counsel and said that you cannot do that, especially against somebody you told advised to file those requests in the first place.
So parents across the country are filing those requests.
They're also forming organizations.
Like you're seeing these new parent organizations just explode all around the country, like Moms for Liberty.
We interviewed the co-founder of Moms for Liberty for our book, The Great Parent Revolt.
And it went from just a few parents to 200 chapters across the country in all states, virtually all states across this country with nearly 100,000 members.
There are other organizations such as No Left Turn in Education, Parents Defending Education, all those sorts of organizations are up.
Also, too, you're seeing parents are running for school board and they're actually winning.
And that's really an amazing thing.
We profile some parent school board members who have won their elections.
We profile a fellow who started a political action committee simply to help parents run for school boards to fight critical race theory.
And they have flipped school boards that have been pro-teacher union majorities to pro-parent majorities all across this country.
And finally, the last thing that parents are doing is they're suing.
They're suing to prevent their kids from being persecuted in the classroom.
And one of the people we profile is an African-American mom who was low-income, disabled, mother of five kids, a widow, and her kid was being prevented from graduating from a high school because he refused to engage in a critical race theory inspired lesson.
And because of that, he took his stand.
They withheld his high school diploma from him.
And she said, this can't be.
So she sued in federal court and forced the school to back down and give him that diploma that he should have had in the first place.
How much of this is backed by the teachers' unions?
I mean, once you take over a school board, do you have the power that you need?
Are the teachers still going to teach this stuff regardless?
Oh, no, it's totally backed by the teachers' union, Andrew.
It's part of the education deep state.
It's not just the teachers' union, but the teachers' union are a big part of that.
You listen to any of the major teachers' unions, whether it's the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, they're backing this stuff in its various guises.
And so it's not only just critical race theory, but critical race theory often comes in under the disguise of diversity, equity, inclusion, and some other types of euphemisms.
But it's basically the same thing.
And so the teachers' unions, the bureaucracies, oftentimes the district leadership, they're all backing this stuff.
And so, and also the university schools of education that are teaching the prospective teachers are backing this stuff.
So, you know, it's unsurprising that you have teachers who are just swallowing this thing, hook, line, and sinker.
You know, I'm almost out of time, but just one last thing.
Did you talk, you talked to a lot of people?
These are personal stories on this book, The Great Parent Revolt.
Do you hear people saying that they're getting pushback from the federal government?
Are they getting the kind of things that we're afraid of when we hear the FBI is investigating them and that sort of thing?
Well, they told us about that.
I mean, not specifically the FBI, but these people are getting pushback from various places.
I mean, well, I mean, you just have to take, I'll go back to your question about the teachers' union.
When Nicole Salas, the Rhode Island mom I mentioned, who filed all those public records requests, you know, did that, and the school board backed down from filing a lawsuit against her, the teachers' union then took up that war and filed a lawsuit against her.
And so, you know, these people are getting pushback, but the great thing is that these parents are winning.
You know, as I mentioned, they're winning both at the ballot box, they're winning in court.
Parents Driving Education Reform00:00:44
And I think that you're going to see that this movement of parents is not just going to be a flash in the pan, that you're going to see these parents, you know, really continue to drive the engine of education reform.
And I think, you know, one of the things we mentioned in the book is that a lot of these parents are actually immigrant parents from communist China and other places where they felt the sting of real oppression, and they don't want to see it happen in America.
Yeah, that's amazing.
The book is The Great Parent Revolt, How Parents and Grassroot Leaders Are Fighting Critical Race Theory in America's Schools.
Lance Azumi is one of the authors, but you can get it anywhere.