DPI Superintendent Catherine Truitt’s Activist Appointee

Marxism Goes to the Top of North Carolina School Administration with Assistant to the Superintendent, Julie Pitman.

By: Savannah Hulsey Pointer and Sloan Rachmuth

Special Assistant to the Superintendent of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Julie Pittman shows her true colors with her continued support of James E. Ford, the State school board member behind the critical race theory civics overhaul in North Carolina.

Pittman, who took her new position in December of 2020, was formerly a high school English teacher in Rutherford County for more than a decade and served as Governor Cooper appointee to the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching Board of Trustees. Truitt said that Pitman’s appointment was “essential to the operation and success of the department and for its critical support of schools across North Carolina” In her newly-created position, Pitman works on the ground to “lift up the voices of educators as well as other education stakeholders, to the department as well as the legislature.”

One voice that Pittman is keen to “lift up” is that of James E. Ford — a Roy Cooper appointee who promotes vicious racial hatred on a daily basis from his social media perch. Just days after Ford went public with his support for Obama’s former “G-D America” pastor Jeremiah Wright, Pitman helps Ford promote one of his critical race theory trainings:

Pittman, like many, was outspoken about the death of George Floyd in May of 2020. However, her activism took on a dark tone as 2020 went on:

Pittman’s support of James E. Ford, who, as EFA’s Sloan Rachmuth previously reported is on a “quest to replace reading, writing, and arithmetic with ‘woke’ subjects like white supremacy, systemic racism,” only increased, to the point where it would be hard to believe that she didn’t completely support his ideals.

Pittman also supports CREED, an organization Ford co-founded whose mission statement reads in part:

“Ensuring equitable education opportunity requires shifting the policy atmosphere and advocating for changes that are generational in their impact.”

“Our theory of change prioritizes expert race-conscious research on North Carolina-specific education issues, raising the collective awareness of the general public while inspiring and shifting the work of educators as they alter practices and protocols to become more equitable.”

In other words, James Ford’s organization promotes race-based educational programming, and by leading her public support, it is apparent that Pitman is in agreement with this brand on pedagogy in the classroom.

Pittman repeated advocacy for Ford is is troubling given the fact that roughly 70% of his Twitter posts since June 2020 on the topic of calling white people and police “white supremacists” hell-bent on destroying the lives of black people. It is apparent Pitman’s support for Ford is more than a passing administration for the State board of education member; it is an indication of a partnership between the two.

To say that Pittman herself was anything other than an activist would be to redefine activism as we know it. Her support of Black Lives Matter has been done in such a way that should concern parents considering that her loyalty was to the organization that was responsible for billions of dollars worth of damages to property, not to mention dozens of deaths.

Pittman’s political activism, while entirely legal, was over the line of inappropriate for an educator whose job it is to give a fair and untainted educational experience to the students of North Carolina.

Pittman’s support for Ford, despite the negative attention he has received in the news, shows that Ford could be just the tip of the critical race theory iceberg sitting atop North Carolina’s public education system.

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