In this week's fact check of North Carolina politics, we turn our attention to this year’s U.S Senate race. An ad attacking Republican candidate Pat McCrory makes a claim about textbooks and critical race theory.
“As governor, Pat McCrory put liberals in charge of the state textbook commission, appointing a Democrat majority,” the ad claims. “His commission mandated textbooks written by radical, woke professors pushing critical race theory, teaching our kids to hate America.”
To assess that WFAE's "Morning Edition" host Marshall Terry turned to Paul Specht of WRAL.
Terry First, Paul, who's behind this ad?
Specht This ad was produced by a group called the School Freedom Fund, and they have ties to another group called the Club for Growth. If that name sounds familiar, it's because they've paid for ads in North Carolina in support of Ted Budd, the congressman who's running in the U.S. Senate race and who has the support of former President Donald Trump.
Terry: So is it true that Pat McCrory, as governor, appointed a Democratic majority to the school textbook commission as this ad claims?
Specht: It appears that way. When we looked into it, we relied on a John Locke Foundation blog. At least, that's what the ad relies on. And that's what we presented to Gov. McCrory.
We said, 'hey, they have claimed that, you know, a certain number of these members are Democrats and a much smaller number are Republicans. Do you dispute that?' And he said, no, he's not disputing the partisan makeup of the board, but he accurately points out that his options are limited by law. The governor can only appoint someone to the textbook commission if they were previously nominated by the superintendent of Education. And during McCrory's entire tenure as governor that was June Atkinson, a Democrat.
So he's right in pointing out that his options are limited. And the state statute does say he can only appoint someone that's been previously nominated by her. Now, he does have some leeway in that he can decide yes or no. He could reject one of her nominations, but he cannot go around her and nominate, say, a hard-line Republican of his choice.
Terry: Well, what about the second part in the ad, that the textbook commission mandated textbooks pushing critical race theory?
Specht: That really misrepresents how the textbooks are approved in North Carolina and how they make their way into classrooms. The textbook commission itself cannot mandate books. Their job is to review recommendations and decide whether or not they think those should be recommended for the classroom. So the textbook commission reviews potential textbooks. They send their ideas to the state Board of Education. The state Board of Education then decides whether or not to approve a textbook for use. So it's on the state Board of Education to actually approve these textbooks, but that's not the end of it. Even if a textbook is approved by the state Board of Education, the local school boards still get to decide which textbooks they want to use in the classroom. Now they have to pick from that menu that's approved by the state Board of Education, but they still have some leeway there in each of their districts.
Terry: So how did you rate this ad then?
Specht: We rated it mostly false. And what that means is there's a kernel of truth here, but that the bulk of the claim or, in this case the ad, is false or misleading. And right now, the kernel of truth is McCrory did appoint Democrats to the textbook commission. He doesn't dispute that, but he accurately points out that state law requires him to appoint people nominated by the superintendent who at the time was a Democrat and that the textbook commission does not mandate books. That's just not how the process works. We are a local control state. These local school districts can decide which of the approved textbooks they use in the classroom.
Terry: So why mostly false instead of just false or full or false, given that the tiny bit that is true is also very misleading about the governor's appointments to the commission and also about the authority that the commission has?
Specht: That's a good question. And there are a couple of answers here. One is PolitiFact tries to strictly adhere to precedent that we set in our ratings. And this looks like a lot of other checks we've done where there is this kernel of truth, but that is misrepresented. And so that's one reason.
We, in fact, when we rate claims, we go through four different questions in deciding how to rate things. And one of them is, what is the precedent? Is there another fact check like this or similar, and what was that rated?
The other thing I'd say is people might say, "Uh McCrory's hands were tied." Well, you know, other critics might say, "why didn't he reject these Democrats?" Sure. He has to appoint someone nominated by the superintendent, but maybe he could have worked with June Atkinson to appoint people that the Republican base elect more. Something like that. I don't know. We're talking hypotheticals here, but there did appear to be some little, bitty wiggle room there in the law where he could reject a nominee. But then again, he does eventually have to appoint someone nominated by the superintendent. So all that to say there was a sliver, a sliver of truth in this ad that we felt was worth pointing out and that people might fairly criticize him for.
