(INDIANAPOLIS) – A bill setting rules on how schools teach about racism has passed the House, two weeks after being left for dead by the Senate.
Cicero Representative Tony J. Cook (R) says the bill takes pains to make clear teachers can and should fully discuss the wrongs of history, from slavery to the Wounded Knee Massacre to the Holocaust. But it instructs schools not to tell students they should feel discomfort or guilt about their own race, religion or sex based on those events.
Cook says while critical race theory has become shorthand for the target of bills like his nationwide, it’s not the sole issue. He says what’s sparked a parental backlash are lesson plans which tell kids they’re responsible for the sins of past generations.
Wendy McNamara, director of Evansville’s Early College High School, was one of nine Republicans to join Democrats in voting no. She credits Cook with “bending over backwards” to draw that line in the right place, and says she supports “99-percent” of the bill. But she says the bill ultimately is crippled by the same flaw it’s trying to address, by telling teachers how they have to teach. She says problems should be addressed in individual school districts, not with a statewide approach that’s likely to overshoot the mark.
Opponents charge the bill will end up muzzling teachers for fear of triggering legal action, and could drive them out of the profession entirely.
Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray (R-Martinsville) had said a Senate version of the bill had “no path forward.” But he said last week the Senate will take a fresh look at changes made in the House. Cook says he’s already talked with senators about further attempts to improve the bill.
