A California school district spent $171,000 for “equity trainings” from a Left-wing consulting firm that uses Critical Race Theory, public records obtained by The Daily Wire reveal.
The contract between the Riverside Unified School District and Epoch Education, a Left-wing education consulting firm, shows that the California school district purchased three different “equity series” coaching sessions and courses mired in Critical Race Theory.
One of the three programs called the Equity Learning Series includes 20 hours of online courses focused on the core tenets of Critical Race Theory like “systemic racial inequity,” intersectionality, racial privilege, and implicit bias. A program outline obtained by The Daily Wire explains “participants will develop a common language and equity lens to identify and discuss equity issues.”
“Participants will learn to recognize and interrupt examples of marginalization and privilege” and “deepen their understanding of historical and systemic racial inequity,” the document reads.
A document from Epoch Education states that one of the other programs, the “Creating And Sustaining Equity Series” includes “deep transformative work” across five sessions that each last two hours. The program is intended for organizations that are “ready to go beyond allyship to anti-oppression.”
Though Critical Race Theory has taken root most notably in deep-blue states like California, education nonprofit Parents Defending Education has identified hundreds of districts across the country, including in every state, that push Critical Race Theory and the equity agenda through teacher trainings, lesson plans, race-based affinity groups, reading lists, and other means.
But while an untold amount of money is spent on Left-wing education consulting programs, reading and math scores have plummeted to their lowest levels in decades. White, black, male, and female students all showed steep declines in the two critical skills since 2020.
Epoch Education has admitted to using Critical Race Theory and even hosted a series of presentations on Critical Race Theory, which discussed “racial awakening,” “racism as the heartbeat of America,” and “whiteness as property.” Parents Defending Education notes that Epoch Education sold courses titled “Critical Race Theory: From Theory to Practice,” though the course is no longer listed on the organization’s website.
The California school districts’ involvement with Epoch Education dates back to at least 2020, when Riverside’s Assistant Superintendent Jacqueline Perez gave a presentation to the school board announcing the partnership with the Left-wing consulting firm. The slideshow, informed by professional development modules from Epoch Education, encouraged staff members to become “equity champions,” cultivate “cultural competency,” and explore “whiteness as property through Critical Race Theory.” Board members had claimed that Riverside was not teaching Critical Race Theory just a month earlier.
The district’s now-deleted equity resource list page featured numerous Critical Race Theory texts, including an “Anti-Racist Reading List” and an essay called “Decentering Whiteness,” which claims that “white culture has, on balance, been based on principles of conquest and exploitation.”
Riverside Unified School District did not respond to a request for comment.