Story at a glance:
- Chip and Joanna Gaines are supporting a woman named Shannon Braun for the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD School Board in Texas.
- Shannon Braun and Chip Gaines are sister and brother.
- Braun is against her district teaching critical race theory, but it is not interested in doing so.
Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV “Fixer Upper” fame donated $1,000 on Wednesday to Shannon Braun’s campaign for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) School Board — a candidate who is against critical race theory, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Critical race theory is the notion that traditional liberal approaches to dealing with racial inequalities need to be reconsidered because laws favor white supremacy.
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Braun, who is Chip Gaines’s sister, is running in the June 5 runoff election against incumbent trustee Mindy McClure.
On her platform, which focuses on giving “our kids the education they deserve,” Braun is a proponent of fighting critical race theory, which she called “the single most divisive threat” in education.
“I will vote down anything and everything that further promotes critical race theory in our school district and actively work to remove all critical race theory,” Braun says in a video posted on her campaign Facebook page.
Oddly, the district she is running for is not teaching critical race theory and does not have an interest in doing so.
The GCISD released a statement clarifying the confusion: “The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, are state standards for what students should know and be able to do in each grade level.”
“These are adopted by the State Board of Education and are then shared with school districts across the state to determine curriculum to best meet these standards. As we encourage our students to take ownership of their learning, they often have choice in how they approach an assignment or the topic they research and study, as long as they can demonstrate mastery of the TEKS. This does not mean, however, that Critical Race Theory is part of GCISD’s curriculum,” the statement continued.
In 2017, it was reported that the Gaines family attended a church known for its anti-LGBTQ+ views, according to BuzzFeed.
Neither the Gaines family nor Braun’s team has responded to the reports.
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