White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently said that it is “responsible” to teach about systemic racism and dismissed Sen. Tom Cotton’s proposal to place a 1 percent tax on elite universities that teach Critical Race Theory and similar teachings and put that money towards vocational training.
A White House reporter asked Psaki about Sen. Cotton claiming that the nation’s wealthiest colleges are indoctrinating young people with un-American ideas. “Does the president believe that our largest, our wealthiest schools are indoctrinating our youth with an American idea? And would you support such a tax?” the reporter asked.
Psaki said “without much detail” that Biden does not think the youth is being indoctrinated. She said Cotton’s ideas sound “very mysterious and dangerous” and told reporters that educating the youth and future leaders on systemic racism is not ‘liberal indoctrination,’ but responsible.
“But I would say if he’s trying to raise money for something, then our view is there are lots of ways to do that. We know that a number of corporations hugely benefited financially during the pandemic. They could pay more taxes. We think the highest one percent of Americans can pay more taxes. And if he wants to have a conversation about worker training, we’d love to have him over and have that conversation,” Psaki continued.
Sen. Cotton recently introduced “Ivory Tower Tax Act of 2021 to support apprenticeship programs under the National Apprenticeship Act. It would impose a one-percent tax on private colleges with more than 500 full-time students that have “endowments worth more than $2.5 billion and $500,000 per full-time enrolled student” and do not have a religious mission. He said the tax would raise $2 billion per year and be directed toward job training programs.
He also introduced the “Saving American History Act of 2020,” which would prohibit schools from using federal funds to teach gender and race-oriented training such as Critical Race Theory and the New York Times’ 1619 Project. A core belief of these systems and institutions is that one particular race or gender is inherently superior to the other and that everyone holds some sort of implicit racial bias they must work to overcome. A key tenet to critical race theory is the belief that White people enjoy certain privileges by virtue of their skin tone and that the systems and institutions in place are designed to uphold White supremacy.
“Our wealthiest colleges and universities have amassed billions of dollars, virtually tax-free, all while indoctrinating our youth with un-American ideas. This bill will impose a tax on university mega-endowments and support vocational and apprenticeship training programs in order to create high-paying, working-class jobs,” Sen. Cotton said.
Several states have already signed legislation to ban Critical Race Theory teachings and similar curriculum in state schools and institutions. There’s a clear difference between teaching what racism is and what systemic racism is. The first can be clearly defined by individual actions. The second has no workable definition and is used as a political tool by the radical left. Like “climate change.”
