The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has agreed to cancel its requirement for schools to enforce teaching guidelines that were deemed “woke” in a recently settled lawsuit.
Pennsylvania officials were requiring schools to adopt a set of instructions on how to approach teaching under their “Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education Program Framework Guidelines” (CR-SE).
The guidelines included mandating teachers to “design learning experiences and spaces for learners to identify and question economic, political, and social power structures in the school” and “disrupt harmful institutional practices, policies, and norms.”
The Thomas More Society, a faith-based legal group, filed a lawsuit against the PDE in April 2023 on behalf of a group of parents and public school districts who argued the mandate violated their First Amendment rights.
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Pennsylvania state Capitol building in Harrisburg. (John Greim/Getty Images)
The PDE agreed to settle the suit in November and rescind its CR-SE guidelines.
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“We are incredibly pleased with this settlement agreement, which forces the Pennsylvania Department of Education to rescind the state’s ‘Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education’ guidelines – securing an important victory for Pennsylvania parents, students, and teachers,” Thomas Breth, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.
“Our agreement is a triumph against the Department’s blatantly ideological and illegal attempt to inject ‘woke’ activism into school curricula across Pennsylvania, which demanded educators affirm their belief in these ideological tenets and then impose the same upon their students,” Breth added.
Just days after the settlement, the department issued new suggestions under their new “Common Ground Framework,” though schools are no longer…
