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‘CRT and ESG are failed ideologies which politicize and racialize education,’ legal scholar says

America’s prestigious business schools regularly push leftist ideologies, including critical race theory and environmental, social, and governance standards, according to a new report.

The Legal Insurrection Foundation launched the project through its CriticalRace.org database. It details the CRT and environmental, social, and governance initiatives at the top 10 business schools in the country, including minority scholarship programs, discriminatory admissions practices, and “anti-racism” trainings required for faculty members.

Foundation founder William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor, told The College Fix that business schools should not be using university funds to sponsor or elevate these types of ideologies in the classroom.

“CRT and ESG are failed ideologies which politicize and racialize education,” Jacobson said.

“While the study of such subjects should not be banned, there is no reason to put university resources behind promoting those topics,” Jacobson said via email. “Almost any university purpose would be a better allocation of resources.”

Jacobson also said business schools were contributing to the issue by including these ideologies in course curricula as students have likely already encountered them in other classes.

“The vice of these subjects is that they inject one-sided political ideologies into business curriculum, without any measurable benefit,” Jacobson said.

“Almost all business school students already will have been exposed to or studied some form of CRT/ESG in secondary and higher education. There is no reason to compound the problem in business school,” he said.

Additionally, the database revealed that several of the business schools’ recommended reading lists contained books written by left-wing authors such as Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.

MORE: Lawmakers stop CRT seminar from returning to UNC Chapel Hill

Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School have all hosted events based on or suggested reading Kendi’s book “How to be an Antiracist” and DiAngelo’s (pictured) book “White Fragility,” according to the database.

The report found the University of Chicago offered an “Underrepresented Students of Color” scholarship. Meanwhile, Harvard created an “Advancing Racial Equity” to “enhance our existing faculty development programs so that all faculty members are better prepared to lead sensitive discussions about race in the classroom.”

Penn also offers a “DEI” concentration for MBA students as well as a major for undergraduate students, as previously reported by The Fix.

The Fix reached out to these schools to ask how teaching CRT and ESG ideologies benefited business school students and how the texts authored by Kendi and DiAngelo directly relate to and prepare students for a career in business.

None of the business schools responded to multiple requests for comment sent in the past two weeks.

Jacobson stated his belief that instead of focusing on CRT and ESG initiatives, business schools should be teaching traditional business curricula.

“A traditional business school education, focused on economics, operations, finance, and other classic subjects has served the current and prior generations well,” Jacobson told The Fix. “If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it, particularly when the supposed fix has known problems driven by ideology.”

MORE: CRT has infected veterinary schools, Professor Jacobson says

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