Public education authorities and teachers’ unions aren’t all wrong when they argue that critical race theory, referring to graduate-level legal theory, is not “taught” in K–12 schools. But with that calculated half-truth, they obscure something more troubling. Teachers in many states are being trained to suffuse critical theory throughout the entirety of the traditional curriculum, pursuing what academics call “the other CRT”: culturally responsive teaching. In fact, a majority of state education departments have adopted some form of the pedagogy.

This other CRT hasn’t faced much pushback—until now. Families, teachers, and administrators in three western Pennsylvania school districts are suing the state Department of Education over its “culturally-relevant and sustaining education” (CR-SE) guidelines, arguing not only that it illegally skirted public scrutiny but also that the competencies listed in the guidelines violate state and federal civil rights guarantees.

According to their complaint, the guidelines dictate what teachers must believe and how they must behave. For instance, one competency requires teachers to acknowledge “that biases exist in the educational system” and to become internal activists who “disrupt harmful institutional practices.” Another requires that teachers “believe and acknowledge that microaggressions are real” and then commit to ridding their classrooms of them, notwithstanding the dubious research behind the concept. And yet another tells teachers to be aware of their “own conscious/unconscious biases,” implying that all must accept their guilt.