by The Republican-controlled North Carolina House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a previously vetoed bill to restrict how teachers can discuss certain racial issues that some lawmakers have equated with “critical race theory.”
The House voted 68-49 along party lines for legislation that prohibits public school teachers from forcing students to believe they should feel guilty or responsible for past actions committed by people of the same race or sex.
United in their opposition, House Democrats challenged Republican claims that the bill would reduce discrimination and argued that a comprehensive history education should make students uncomfortable.
Gains of Republican seats in the midterms give them greater leverage this year to override any veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who successfully blocked a similar proposal in 2021 and urged lawmakers this month in his state of the state address. : “Do not make teachers rewrite history”. But Republicans, who are short of a veto-proof majority House seat, will likely need some Democratic support to get the measure into law.
North Carolina is among 10 states currently considering such proposals, according to a Education Week analysis. Eighteen others have already limited the way teachers can talk about racism and sexism in the classroom.
Gaston County Republican Rep. John Torbett said the bill, now heading to the Senate, will bar schools from endorsing controversial concepts, including that one race or gender is inherently superior.
“This great educational state must have an education system that unites and teaches our children, not divides and indoctrinates them,” said Torbett, the bill’s sponsor.
Several Democrats, including Representatives Rosa Gill of Wake County and Laura Budd of Mecklenburg County, raised concerns that the language is vague and does not define clear boundaries for teachers. Budd said this “massive failure” puts unnecessary pressure on teachers who may feel they need to stifle productive classroom discussions to keep their jobs.
“The bill, at first glance, is the obvious attempt to micromanage from the General Assembly to the classrooms,” he said during the floor debate. “It is an overreach and will have a chilling effect on teachers and educators by restricting what they think they are allowed to teach.”
Republican lawmakers on the committee applauded the measure for “banning” critical race theory, a complex academic and legal framework that centers on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation’s systems and institutions that perpetuate inequality. .
The bill does not explicitly mention the framework, but it prohibits teaching that the government is “inherently racist” or that it was created to oppress people of another race or gender. His language reflects a proposal model of Citizens for Renewing America, a conservative social welfare group founded by a former Trump administration official to rid the nation’s schools of critical race theory.
Republicans across the country have made the phrase a catchall for racial issues related to systemic inequality, inherent bias and white privilege. While many K-12 public schools teach about slavery and its consequences, education officials have found little to no evidence that critical race theory is, by definition, being taught.
The bill would also require North Carolina schools to notify the state Department of Public Instruction and post information online at least one month before they plan to host a diversity trainer or guest speaker who has previously advocated the beliefs. restricted by law.
Cary’s mother and activist, Michelle O’Keefe, was among several parents who testified against the bill at a committee meeting Tuesday. O’Keefe said she doesn’t want her youngest son not to learn about racism and other atrocities in history, as long as those lessons are age-appropriate for her.
“The best way to prevent history from repeating itself,” he said, “is to know the history.”
Another mother was concerned that she would be banned from speaking on her son’s career day because she has a documented history of speaking out against social injustices. Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake County, expressed similar concern that she can no longer fill in for the teacher because of her record on issues of racial justice and gender equality.
