At a time when our state’s students are still struggling to recover from educational losses thanks to COVID - our resources should be utilized more wisely - helping students regain losses in learning in CRITICAL areas of actual instruction like READING, MATH. I am concerned that One of the major resources for teaching this course is VERY polarizing and further separates and divides our children, teachers and communities. Please vote NO for this required curriculum.  This is simply CRT with a different title. Please spend these resources and valuable time helping teachers learn new techniques for teaching more effectively and focus their efforts teaching our students to excel in Reading and Math!!!   This cultural competence training is decisive and absolutely NOT inclusive. 

reference material: 

Vernita Mayfield’s Cultural Competence Now: 56 Exercises to Help Educators Understand and Challenge Bias, Racism, and Privilege, which promotes being “aware of privilege and bias” and “reviewing the school’s mission through race.”  In fact, the guidance being proposed by VDOE, which relies heavily on this work, requires minimum standards of self-reflection on “one’s own beliefs” and their “impact on educational decisions.” This guidance is clearly pushing a set of beliefs and values on schools, teachers, and administrators that will inevitably make its way into the classroom and be taught to children.