President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday backtracked on her claim that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not taught in schools when Sen. Ted Cruz revealed that CRT is taught at the very school where she serves on the board.
“Is critical race theory taught in schools? Is it taught in Kindergarten through twelfth [grade]?” Sen. Ted Cruz questioned Jackson.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” she responded. “I believe it’s an academic theory that is at the law school level.”
Cruz then proceeded to point to books that are a part of the Georgetown Day School curriculum, which espouses CRT. Cruz cited the books “Critical Race Theory, An Introduction” and “Antiracist Baby” as examples of the books. Jackson has been a board of trustees member at Georgetown Day School since 2019 and a member of the Georgetown Day School community for about a decade.
When Jackson was confronted with Cruz’s knowledge of her position on the board, Jackson excused her role in the school’s CTR curriculum because she “does not control the curriculum” and “is not focused on that.”
“Are you comfortable with these ideas being taught to children as young as four in respect to the first book, and and young as eight and nine in the respect to the second book,” Cruz immediately questioned Jackson.
Presented with hard evidence, Jackson backtracked on her previous statement.
“I have not reviewed any of those books [or] any of those ideas,” she responded. “They do not come up as my work as a judge,” she claimed, acknowledging Critical Race Theory is taught in schools.
Georgetown Day School’s website reveals the board of trustees participates in administrating an “anti-racism action plan,” including the review and revisions of “current language around community expectations,” along with reviewing “anti-racist work” to “inform potential governance changes.”
Lisa Fairfax, the chairwoman of the board of trustees at the Georgetown Day School, is a “friend” of Jackson and introduced her on the opening day of Jackson’s confirmation hearing.
Jackson’s backtracking on CRT speaks to the challenges she may have in being confirmed to the Court. Only 47 percent of voters believe Jackson should be confirmed, a Tuesday Politico/Morning Consult poll revealed. Jackson’s approval number is also much worse than Justice Samuel Alito’s (50-25 percent), Justice John Roberts’s (59-22), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s (53-14), and Justice Clarence Thomas’s (52-17).