AFPI Demands Iowa School District Stop Indoctrinating Students with Critical Race Theory

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Constitutional Litigation Partnership (CLP), led by Chair and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, sent an official demand letter to the Baxter Community School District, located in Baxter, Iowa, approximately 35 miles northeast of Des Moines, to stop teaching its course “Social Justice in Literature,” as it violates a 2021 Iowa law that prohibits the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT). The accompanying open records request asks the school district to produce all relevant records about the course.

“The America First Policy Institute stands with the brave parents of Baxter Community School District, and across the Nation, who are saying no more to the un-American indoctrination of our children,” said Craig Trainor, CLP’s Senior Litigation Counsel at AFPI. “School should prepare students for citizenship in our constitutional republic and colorblind society, not turn impressionable children into social justice warriors who view all that is good and just through the distorted lens of race, sex, gender, power, and politics.” 

The demand letter informs the school district that its course, Social Justice in Literature, circumvents Iowa law and permits leftist academics to incorporate CRT and radical notions of gender theory into the classroom. The demand letter requires the school district to confirm in writing that (1) the Social Justice in Literature course has been rescinded; (2) parents, students, and teachers have been advised accordingly; and (3) the school district will follow the law as HF 802 requires. 

HF 802 was signed into law on June 8, 2021, by Governor Kim Reynolds to prevent school districts, teachers, and administrators from teaching, encouraging, or promoting CRT and other divisive concepts based on race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating. The law was meant to promote the fundamental American principle that all people should be judged on the content of their character rather than their race, gender, or sexual identity.

You can read the full demand letter here.

You can read the public records request here.