Lawmakers seek to ban teaching of critical race theory |
In the wake of a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Education prioritizing racial, cultural and ethnic diversity in history and civics curriculum nationwide, state legislators are moving to ban the teaching critical race theory (CRT) in schools. The latest proposal came in Washington, D.C., where Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican lawmaker from Wisconsin, has introduced legislation to require that no employee of D.C. public and charter schools "shall compel a teacher or student to adopt, affirm, adhere to, or profess ideas that promote race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating." The bill is thought unlikely to pass; the nation's capital is under the authority of Congress, with both chambers in Democratic control. In Montana, meanwhile, Attorney General Austin Knudsen has issued a 25-page legal opinion characterizing critical CRT and antiracism. not as academic ideas but as potentially discriminatory ideologies propped up by universities, corporations, government agencies “and even late-night television.” “The CRT and ‘antiracism’ movements demonstrate that although ‘racism’ is widely understood and accepted as an epithet, it encompasses vastly different meanings for different people,” Knudsen wrote. “The gravamen of CRT and antiracism’s theories, however, rely on the popular shibboleths of ‘systemic,’ ‘institutional,’ or ‘structural’ racism. A minimal investigation into these claims exposes them as hollow rhetorical devices devoid of any legally sufficient rationale for purposes of civil rights law, as well as a threat to the stability of our institutions.”