Majorie Taylor Greene Says IL School Got $5.1 Billion For 'Diversity'

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely suggested that an Illinois elementary school had received $5.1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief aid for "equity and diversity," prompting widespread derision on social media.

A spokesperson for the Georgia Republican later told Patch Greene was referencing the statewide total amount of federal school aid allocated to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a portion of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, or ARP ESSER.

Greene made the remarks Wednesday while questioning Comptroller General Gene Dodaro during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on federal coronavirus spending and fraud.

"Can you tell me how much COVID cash went to CRT?" Greene asked.

"CRT?" Dodaro said.

"Critical race theory in education. It's a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education," the congresswoman explained.

"No, I do not know that," Dodaro said. "But I do know that there are provisions that the federal funds generally are supposed to be used for curriculum, that's a state and local —"

"Oh, Mr. Dodaro, I have to tell you, in Illinois they received $5.1 billion at an elementary school there that used it for equity and diversity," she said. "So it's being used for these things."

Nick Dyer, Greene's communications director, cited an April 2022 report by Fox News Digital about states that used federal COVID-19 relief funding for implicit bias and antiracism training.

"[Rep. Greene] was referring to the entire system who made it a priority to use funds for those purposes," Dyer told Patch in an email.

The Fox News report refers to the Illinois State Board of Education's ARP ESSER state plan, noting that the then-state superintendent praised its "equity-driven investments in teacher retention and students' mental health and academic growth."

Illinois' final plan included the following strategies to respond to the effects of COVID-19 and associated closures on education, with an emphasis on support for groups that were disproportionately affected by the pandemic:

The specific strategies include: supporting best practices and continuous quality improvement, including an emphasis on equity and diversity in order to support student learning while also addressing remote and blended learning; assisting districts in addressing COVID-19’s impact on learning by providing supports around Priority Learning Standards; expanding literacy on the utilization of assessment and on assessment data to accurately identify learning gains, achievement gaps, and COVID-19’s impact on learning; supporting schools to address the social and emotional needs of students, educators, and staff impacted by COVID-19 by providing them with high-quality professional development; and supporting educator retention by leveraging partnerships that will provide access to coaching, mentoring, and teacher leadership opportunities, which include remote and blended pedagogy, as well as culturally responsive teaching practices

Among Illinois State Board of Education initiatives supported by the federal funding is a $2 million joint effort with the Sangamon-Menard Regional Office of Education 51 and Teach Plus, a national teaching nonprofit, to support and retain nonwhite teachers.

The program's goal is a statewide system of racial affinity groups to "bring teachers of color together to examine issues facing them, including the causes of attrition, and to develop policy recommendations," according to a statement announcing the effort.

Justin Johnson, a band teacher at Niles Township High School District 219, completed a policy fellowship with Teach Plus during the state-funded sabbatical he received after winning the 2021 Illinois Teacher of the Year award. He has focused on increasing the recruitment and retention of diverse teachers during the sabbatical, according to state education officials.

“When we gather in places where there is a shared identity, it allows for authentic conversations about issues related to lived experiences," Johnson said in a statement. “This creates space to discuss how improvement can be made to improve the climate and culture within the systems of education. If we want to truly improve the diversity within the teacher pipeline and the retention of those educators, it must begin with creating a safe space for those voices and valuing those voices when they speak."

Data shows Illinois schools retain just 80.6 percent of Black teachers, the lowest rate of any ethnic group, compared to 87.6 percent for white teachers. And studies have shown that students are less likely to received exclusionary discipline or to be chronically absent when they are taught by teachers of their own race, according to the state board of education.

Two years ago, the Democrat-led House of Representatives stripped Greene of her committee assignments over her controversial statements.

Eleven Republicans joined 221 Democrats in voting to remove her from House committees.

Ahead of the vote, Greene delivered a speech acknowledging that "9/11 absolutely happened," that school shootings are "absolutely real" and that she had stopped believing in QAnon — a conspiracy theory that holds a group of Satanic cannibals operating a global child sex trafficking ring opposed former President Donald Trump.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: 'I'm Sorry For Saying All Those Things'

After Republicans won a majority in the House and last month elected Southern California Congressman Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Greene was assigned to seats on the Homeland Security and House Oversight committees.

During Wednesday's hearing, Greene also questioned Dodaro about how much COVID-19 relief was allocated to racism and diversity issues, abortion and drag performances.

"Can you tell me how much money was given to drag queen story hour?" Greene asked.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Dodaro said.

"Drag queen story time, where men dress up as women and read confusing books to children," the congresswoman clarified.

"First I thought you said 'dry clean,'" the comptroller general said. "I'm sorry. No, I don't know the answer to either one of those."