Last updated 7/13/2021 at 3:57pm New Social Studies standards that the New Mexico Public Education Department is developing could be “contentious,” Portales Municipal School Superintendent Johnnie Cain Monday wrote in a report presented Monday to the school board at the board’s regular monthly meeting. The social studies standards, Cain said in an interview after the meeting, are likely to include some guidelines involving “critical race theory,” a topic that has become very controversial nationwide. Critical race theory teaches that racism has been built into American laws and institutions throughout the nation’s history. The guidelines, however, will not go out will go out for public review and comment before the fall, Cain said.