Just a couple of days after an “Anti-Stereotyping Act” expired in a House committee, the Senate took up a similarly themed “Anti-Racism Act.”
A majority of the Senate Education Committee approved the bill after about 90 minutes of discussion, advancing it to the Senate floor. The Senate is also up against a deadline to move bills to the other chamber. But the full Senate was poised to accept the bill and consider it on the first of three separate days during a 5 p.m. floor session Monday.
Similar bills focusing on how race, ethnicity and sex are discussed in classrooms have been on legislative agendas across the country.
Senate Bill 498 was introduced one month ago by Senate Education Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, but there was no movement until Monday. Some senators said they only learned the bill would be considered shortly before showing up to the afternoon’s committee meeting. The committee wound up considering a committee substitute that included changes not in the original bill.
The bill would forbid instruction that one race, ethnic group or sex is superior to another. It also would prohibit instruction that some groups are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive based on their race, ethnicity or sex. And it prohibits instruction that moral character is determined by those factors.
And the bill prohibits instruction that an individual should feel discomfort, guilt or anguish because of their race, ethnicity or sex.
The culmination is a complaint procedure for kindergarten to 12th grade for instances of noncompliance. There is a reporting procedure for higher education. The original bill opened the door to lawsuits by those who considered themselves aggrieved by instances of noncompliance.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, who is also a member of the education committee, said he came to the committee meeting without any determined position on the bill.
“There are truths about our history which are uncomfortable, and it’s really important that we not sweep those under the rug,” said Trump, R-Morgan. “There are things that have happened that are shameful blights upon our history.”
Trump credited members of the education committee for working to improve the bill. “I was unsure when I arrived here today how I was going to vote on it, but I support the bill,” he said.
Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, countered that the bill could create worry among teachers who wonder where the line on classroom discussion would really be drawn. “I still think we’re creating a lot of anxiety on our teachers,” he said. “Even though it is a better bill as amended, it’s still one not needed and creates anxiety among the teachers.”
Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, another member of the education committee, suggested the bill would take pressure off teachers instead. He contended national teacher unions are promoting curricula surrounding systemic racism.
“We have teachers that want to be able to follow just what we’re putting into law,” said Tarr, R-Putnam, saying they could instead feel pressure “to do what union leaders are guiding them to do and what that association is doing, instead of doing what’s right.”
Sen. Hannah Geffert, D-Berkeley, said society’s race and gender issues are complex, “and it’s not as simple as these people are right and these people are wrong, and we don’t want to make you feel guilty.” Geffert was a political science professor at Shepherd University.
“I think if we just say we don’t want people to be uncomfortable, it loses the mosaic that is America,” she said. She said teachers “have to have some freedom to have some people feel uncomfortable about where we were, but also feel some hope in where we’re going.”
