Education Week - April 6, 2022 - 7

Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Put on Republican Hot-Seat
Over Gender, Critical Race Theory
By Mark Walsh
Using the prism of education, the
Senate Judiciary Committee had two
distinct ways of looking at U.S. Supreme
Court nominee Ketanji Brown
Jackson over several days of confirmation
hearing testimony.
To Democratic senators, who are
clearly in her corner, Jackson is an inspiration
to young people by virtue of
coming from parents who grew up attending
segregated schools and became
successful career educators,
her stellar academic record, and her
potential to make history as the first
Black woman on the high court,
where she would succeed the retiring
Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
To at least a handful of the 11 Republicans
on the committee, Jackson
is someone who embraces liberal orthodoxies
such as racial awareness,
serves on the board of a private
school that teaches critical race theory
starting in the earliest grades, and
bodes ominously for traditional gender
roles by refusing to recognize
physical differences between men
and women.
Those were themes both sides returned
to repeatedly during the three
days Jackson spent at the witness
table, including more than 20 hours of
questioning over two of those days.
Cruz grills on critical race
theory
One of the more charged exchanges
came when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas,
raised the issue of critical race theory
with Jackson.
" Critical race theory frames all of
society as a fundamental and intractable
battle between the races, " Cruz
said, focusing his line of questioning
on the initial day of questioning
around the view by conservative critics
that the analysis developed in law
schools for examination of racism in
society had seeped into discussions
of race in all levels of education.
Cruz first asked her whether critical
race theory was taught in K-12 schools.
" I don't know, I don't think so, "
Jackson said. " I believe it's an academic
theory that's at the law school
level. "
Cruz then raised Jackson's membership
on the board of trustees of
Georgetown Day School, a private
school in Washington, D.C., and
whether the school had embraced
critical race theory as part of its core
commitment to social justice. The recent
debate over critical race theory
has largely played out in public
schools more than private schools.
Jackson noted that the private
school's embrace of social justice
stems from its founding in 1945 as a
racially integrated school at a time
when Washington's public schools remained
segregated by law. It is a history
well-known in the nation's capital,
and many affluent progressives
send their children to the school.
(One of the two daughters of Jackson
and her husband, Patrick, still attends
the school.)
Cruz sought to impeach Jackson's
testimony, in the courtroom-surprise
sense.
" When you just testified a minute
ago that you didn't know if critical
race theory was taught in K-12, I will
confess I find that statement a little
hard to reconcile with the public record, "
Cruz said. " If you look at the
Georgetown Day School's curriculum,
it is filled and overflowing with
critical race theory. "
He held up books that he said were
" either assigned or recommended "
by the school, including one titled
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
and a children's book called Antiracist
Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi, which
Cruz said declares that babies are
taught to be either racist or antiracist.
When Cruz asked Jackson about
that children's book, she let out a sigh
of exasperation.
" Senator, I do not believe that any
child should be made to feel as though
they are racist, or as though they are
not valued, " she said.
Democrats see Jackson as
a source of inspiration
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., came to
Jackson's defense by referring to the
recent efforts to remove books about
race and other topics viewed as objectionable
by some on the right.
" We're entering an age that is surprising
to me in American society,
when lots of books are being banned, "
Booker said. But as a board member
of the private school, Jackson had no
role in choosing the curriculum,
Booker said, and she quickly agreed
with him.
Booker, like many of the other
Democrats on the committee, repeatedly
praised Jackson for her historic
nomination.
" Not only are your parents and
children proud, but so are your ancestors, "
he said.
And Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii,
told Jackson that as a graduate of a
public high school, she would be a
welcome addition to the high court.
" Of the nine sitting justices of the
Supreme Court, only three were graduates
of our public school system, "
Hirono said. " Public high schools educate
people from all backgrounds,
and most people go to public schools. "
(Those three are Breyer, Samuel A.
Alito Jr., and Elena Kagan, so the net
number would not change.)
But Republicans were not finished
with raising hot-button issues that
have arisen in education.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.,
took up critical race theory late Tuesday
evening.
" We know that CRT is being
pushed in our K-12 schools, " she said.
Parents across the country are worried
about critical race theory and
" progressive indoctrination, " Blackburn
said.
Nominee asked to define
'woman'
She also brought up Georgetown
Day School, asking whether Jackson
supported what Blackburn characterized
as a progressive approach on
gender identity.
" I found it astounding that it
teaches kindergartners ... 5-year-old
children ... they teach them that they
can choose their gender, " Blackburn
said.
Jackson said she would not comment
" about what schools teach. "
Blackburn also raised a U.S. Supreme
Court decision on gender equity
that discussed the physical differences
between men and women.
" Can you provide a definition for
the word 'woman'? " Blackburn said.
" No, I can't, " Jackson said. " Not in
this context. I'm not a biologist. "
Blackburn seemed further astounded.
" You
think the meaning of the
word 'woman' is so controversial that
you can't give me a definition? " the
senator said. " The fact that you cannot
give me a straight answer about
something as fundamental as what a
woman is underscores the dangers of
the kind of progressive education
that we are hearing about. "
Cruz picked up on Blackburn's line of
questioning, asking how Jackson could
know in a case alleging gender discrimination
whether the litigant had legal
standing as a woman.
Jackson seemed to have given some
further thought on how to respond.
" Senator, I know I am a woman,
and Senator Blackburn is a woman,
and [so is] the woman I admire most
in the world [who] is in the room
today, my mother. "
In the end, the country learned little
about how Jackson would rule on any
particular education law issue, including
those raised by Republicans.
But Jackson did make a bit of news
when Cruz asked whether, if confirmed,
she would recuse herself
from the major affirmative action
case the Supreme Court is slated to
take up next fall. The case involves a
challenge to the consideration of race
in admissions at Harvard University
and the University of North Carolina.
Jackson is a member of Harvard's
Board of Overseers, with a term that
ends this spring. But previously, she
had not addressed whether she would
sit out the case.
In response to Cruz's question, she
matter-of-factly said that she would
recuse.
" Senator, that is my plan, " she said.
The Judiciary Committee was
scheduled to vote on Jackson's confirmation
April 4.
EDUCATION WEEK | April 6, 2022 | www.edweek.org | 7
Above: U.S. Supreme Court
nominee Ketanji Brown
Jackson speaks before
the Senate Judiciary
Committee on the third
day of her confirmation
hearing on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas,
holds up a book as he
questions U.S. Supreme
Court nominee Judge
Ketanji Brown Jackson
during her confirmation
hearing before the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Jose Luis Magana/AP
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - April 6, 2022

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