Last week, Republican Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears said that Loudoun County Public Schools had spent $300,000 on Critical Race Theory training last year. PolitiFact has decided that it’s time to set the record straight on Sears’ claim:
Loudoun County schools spent $34,167 in 2020 for seminars to familiarize senior officials with critical race theory and equity training. A school spokesman says no additional funds have been spent on CRT, and not "$300,000." https://t.co/rli1GT5D5S
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) January 25, 2022
And if we can trust anyone, it’s an official from Loudoun County Public Schools, right?
PolitiFact ultimately rated Sears’ claim “mostly false”:
Earle-Sears said, “We know last year the Loudoun County School Board spent about $300,000 – that’s real money, that’s going-to-jail money – to bring CRT in some form or fashion to the school system.”
Earle-Sears has a little ground beneath her. In 2020, the school system paid a consultant $34,167 to conduct seminars for senior officials on critical race theory and equity training.
But that sum is almost nine times less than the $300,000 Earle-Sears claims. We asked her office three times how she came up with the figure and did not get an answer. It appears that she has greatly overstated the cost of the seminars.
As it turns out, the “mostly” in “mostly false” is doing a lot of heavy lifting:
.@PolitiFact is calling out @WinsomeSears for “falsely claiming” that LCPS paid “about $300,000” for critical race theory-inspired training.
Well, your humble Poynter alumni is here with receipts. And LCPS DID pay upwards of $300k for such traininghttps://t.co/67dfCjaORz pic.twitter.com/OXT78tRiHm
— Chrissy Clark (@chrissyclark_) January 25, 2022
If we’re going to get technical about it, then we can indeed point out that the bulk of the payments shown in the above screenshot appear to have been made in 2019, and not last year. And if we’re gonna get technical, then we can point out that the $34,167 payment cited by PolitiFact was not the only payment made in 2020, or even the highest payment made in 2020. And if we’re gonna get technical, then we can point out that those payments listed add up to a lot more than $300,000.
"Fact checkers" be "fact checking". https://t.co/e1HPuwusQe
— Rob Carey (@reallyrbc) January 25, 2022
I am sure they will apologize
— Bill Fleenor 15 🌹 Bowls 5 NTs 17 Conf Titles (@fleenorbill) January 25, 2022
Just as soon as they can put out their flaming pants.
Sheesh, @PolitiFact didn't even get the 2020 figures correct, which is how they will excuse their mendacity.
— Mac Davis (@mac1davis) January 25, 2022
PolitiFact liars lying again.
— Blinking Cursor (@Hague7Pat) January 25, 2022
politifact lies again as usual
— Storm Paglia 🇺🇸 (@storm_paglia) January 25, 2022
Fact.
.@politiFact Comment? Retraction? Apology? Morons https://t.co/xKaHgwxSkZ
— Steve Brown (@SteveBr16032572) January 25, 2022
Ah! But they didn't pay it all at once! Therefore, what she said was technically false while being technically true, therefore, because she's a republican with some latent Whyte supremacy issues, what she said was completely false, despite being technically correct.
— Raltheon (@raltheon) January 25, 2022
Or something. @politifact can go screw themselves.
— Raltheon (@raltheon) January 25, 2022
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