Licensing board resorts to ‘mafia tactics’ to force teachers to accept radical woke ideology

A major overhaul by Minnesota’s state education licensing board that forces new teachers to embrace core tenets of Critical Race Theory and radical gender ideology in order to become licensed educators smacks of “mafia tactics” according to a veteran teacher.

According to the controversial updated “Standards of Effective Practice,” prospective teachers for the first time will be required to commit to affirming “woke” concepts including “diverse perspectives on race, culture, language, sexual identity, ability,” and to affirm “students’ background and identities” if they are to get their licenses.

The rebooting of the requirements – which will go into effect by 2025 – is the product of the state’s Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) which is stacked with members who were appointed by Minnesota’s Democrat Governor Tim Walz, the commissar of a territory that is so left-wing that it might as well be a northern outpost of California.

Some are speaking out against the updated rules including Rebecca Friedrichs, a public school teacher for nearly three decades and the founder of “For Kids and Country,” a group seeking to restore morality and patriotism to the education system by combating the toxic influence of teacher’s unions.

(Video: Fox News Digital)

According to Friedrichs, every single “buzzword” of the far left’s political agenda is included in the new standards.

“We are hired to educate children, not push a political agenda. And we are hired to serve children and their parents and work in connection with them,” she told Fox News Digital.

The document states that teachers must create “opportunities for students to learn about power, privilege, intersectionality, and systemic oppression in the context of various communities” and groom students to become “agents of social change to promote equity.”

(Image: Screengrab/State of Minnesota)

Additionally, teachers are required to learn and absorb the impacts of so-called “systemic trauma” and understand the adverse effects of racism and “micro and macro aggressions” on learning outcomes.

“We’re being told by a teaching licensing board, and by a union that claims to represent us, and by legislators that claim to represent we the people—that we’re forced to do this,” Friedrichs told Fox News Digital.

She also suggests that teachers were “trapped” into choosing between losing their jobs and doing things that run counter to their conscience, common sense and even science and that the Minnesota board was influenced by a politicized process that ignores teachers.

“This is called bullying. These are mafia tactics. This is being run by a cartel,” she said.

Also speaking out to Fox News Digital about Minnesota’s new rules is Catrin Wigfall, a Policy Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment who told the outlet that the changes will affect anyone who aspires to ply their trade in education in the state in both public or private schools.

Wigfall warned that “the rule changes could violate teachers’ religious liberties and exacerbate teachers’ shortages.”

She also took issue with the requirement about molding kids into “agents of social change.”

“I fear that the classroom will be encouraged to be a space for students to become social justice activists, social justice warriors, and that I think will politicize the classroom and turn it into an ideological battleground,” Wigfall said.

Friedrichs also said that teachers needed to escape from being trapped in the “unionized monopoly,” urging them to disengage from a system that they are trapped in and that many do not know that they are not required to pay the teachers’ unions anymore.

“They might harass you, they’ll probably bully you, but we have to be courageous and stand up against these wicked people who are truly damaging our kids and our freedoms,” she told Fox News Digital.

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Chris Donaldson

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles