Michael Gottesman: The Radical Right’s New Target

Michael Gottesman is a retire attorney who founded the Coalition for the Protection of Public Education. In a recent guest op-ed for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, he pointed to a new target for far right opponents of public education.

The same folks who cried wolf about critical race theory have moved on to bigger targets, which makes sense–it’s hard to keep focus on CRT as a major threat when so many parents see no signs of it in their local school. So Gottesman says they’ve moved to another target.

The same opposition players have now jumped on the DEI bus to try and vilify a training program for teachers. The Evangelical Right-wing “Center for Garden State Families” is already touring the state, plying the latest nonsense, cashing in on hatred and homophobia. But then again, I guess they have forgotten about Luke 6:31: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It has a different meaning in this supposed religious organization’s playbook.

DEI programs are necessary programs to expand the reach and inclusion of public education education students.

DEI is a professional education program for teachers designed to enlighten teachers to avoid inherent biases and to sensitize them so they don’t succumb to biases in the classroom, like unintentionally treating students of color as less intelligent than white students.