Republican members of the Michigan Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee voted on Tuesday to advance legislation that education officials said is dividing parents and teachers and would silence teachers attempting to discuss race and racism.
Critical race theory
The Michigan State Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday to counter the anti-critical race theory (CRT) bills introduced in the Legislature last year, but it didn’t happen without lengthy debate among board members and hours of public comment. Tuesday’s meeting stretched nearly 10 hours due to hundreds of public comments.
A coalition of education groups made up of history educators joined together in opposition of two state bills that they say “misconstrue Critical Race Theory (CRT).
The Department of Justice has directed the FBI to meet with local governments and law enforcement to discuss strategies for dealing with increasing threats to teachers and school board members spurred by a conservative backlash against discussions of race in public schools.
Teachers from Tennessee to Iowa are swept up in a wave of outrage led by GOP politicians nationwide over how schools teach kids about race in U.S. history.
From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have launched into a fight against the teaching of “critical race theory,” which just a year ago was a niche academic term. Experts in critical race theory say it’s about acknowledging how racial disparities are embedded in U.S history and society, and the concept is being mischaracterized by conservatives. But GOP lawmakers in the past few months have succeeded in pushing it to the top of state legislative agendas.