West Cleveland News

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci sharply criticized Gov. Mike DeWine as the dispute surrounding critical race theory in schools continues to rage. 

DeWine recently discussed his thoughts on CRT with the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

"We need to study slavery," DeWine said. "We need to study the impact it has had. We need to understand discrimination. So these are all things we need to study, and we should understand."

DeWine's primary opponent, Renacci, had strongly worded thoughts on this as well in a statement. 

"Mike DeWine's comments prove he is a mealy-mouthed RINO who is more concerned about offending the liberal mainstream media than he is about fighting for Ohio's students and parents," Renacci said on his site. "If DeWine didn't watch so much CNN, he would know that critical race theory has nothing to do with teaching history and everything to do with leftist propaganda that devalues our children based on the color of their skin. Maybe that's why he has taken zero steps to stop it as governor. Every day that DeWine fails to take action to fight critical race theory is another day that nefarious left-wing influences can turn our children into victims in our classrooms." 

Renacci ended his statement with a call to action in terms of what he wanted to do as governor. 

"Protecting Ohio's schools, whether from CRT or mask mandates, will be one of my top priorities," Renacci said. "As governor, I will do everything within my executive power to ban critical race theory and enthusiastically work with Republicans in the legislature to ensure it can't take root in Ohio."

On the other side of the debate, Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said CRT is not being taught in schools.

“It’s not a K-12 curriculum," DiMauro said, according to WOUB Public Media. "Critical race theory is a theory that comes out of higher education, mostly out of the realm of law, that looks at the impact of inequity and racism on the law and how that has had an impact on opportunities for students throughout the years. We see that in the form of segregation and redlining, and things like that has a direct impact on schools, but that’s not part of our curriculum."

Critical race theory is an intellectual framework and social movement based on the concept that race is not biological, but socially constructed. According to CRT, race was constructed in order to keep down non-white individuals. Critical race theorists state that the law in the United States is racist and was created to support white supremacy. CRT's origins are in critical legal studies, which state that legal institutions help the wealthy at the expense of the poor, and this is in turn based on Marxist critical theory. CRT is opposed to the idea of "color blindness".

Renacci said in the Jan. 17 press release that the governor's comments reveal that he is not going to fight CRT in schools. Renacci cited Republican governors Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin, who have fought to ban CRT in their states. Renacci is a businessman and former U.S. representative for the 16th congressional district facing off against against DeWine in the May 3 Republican gubernatorial primary.

Renacci is an accountant and entrepreneur who formerly owned the Columbus Destroyers Arena Football Team. He won election to U.S. Congress in 2010 as a member of the Tea Party movement, and subsequently endorsed Donald Trump over former Ohio governor John Kasich in the 2016 primary.