A high school has put $24,000 toward a racial equity firm. In fact, it had already collected nearly half a million dollars from the county to provide race programs. The school paid cash to The Equity Collaborative, which is a North Carolina-based consulting firm. Six virtual training sessions for educators were provided between February 1st and April 12th.

High School Helps Low-Income Students

The public information officer, Wayde Byard, for Public Schools in a county in Virginia did not say what service the group will provide but said Title 1 Funds do cover the contract. They must, in fact, go towards helping low-income students to meet state academic standards as imposed by Richmond lawmakers.

High School: Countering Bias and Oppression with Equity Teaching

At first, this contract does appear to be the first between a Virginia school and the Equity Collaborative. It does, however, comes on the heels of the county that pushed $500,000 in funds to the group for programs. They were designing to counter systematic bias and oppression

Equity and High School Equity Training

The county in Virginia has in fact further laid out plans to allocate more than $6 million for “equity” and “equity training” in its 2022 fiscal year budget. Moreover, it is unclear what the cash will cover. Byard has said “a majority of the $5.49 million or 90%. That is to provide equitable access to instruction and resources for our 85,867 projected students.”

Critical Race Theory

The county in Virginia has captured national attention because of the latest revelation in which is it being a prominent battlefield over critical race theory (CRT). That is to shed light on its inner workings.

School System Training

Although the high school has, in fact, denied teaching CRT. Thus, there is an invoice that shows the Equity Collaborative has explicitly charged the school system for training related to “critical race theory.”

It seems defenders do generally argue that CRT-type training helps bolster dominant groups’ understanding and empathy of what was the oppressed experience on a regular basis. Moreover, these types of training have also been promoting as ways to “dismantle” or weakening alleged structures that impose burdens that occur through bias and discrimination.