by: Sloan Rachmuth
Republicans in the House Education Committee passed two bills that will help restore civility and order in North Carolina classrooms: an anti-CRT bill and an updated school discipline bill.
HOUSE BILL 187
HB187 is the Equality in Education bill. It included several measures to prevent stereotyping, scapegoating and humiliation based on race, biological sex, and other immutable characteristics.
First, it bans teachers from indoctrinating students on ideas that lost acceptance long before the Jim Crow era in America.
A few examples:
Whites are superior to blacks and immigrants.
Women are inferior to men.
America is a country where only white Christian males are welcome
The second requirement of the bill is that teachers must provide both sides of historical narratives and not punish students who hold opinions or beliefs that differ from their own.
Third, the bill will require school districts to contact the Department of Public Instruction 30 days before agreeing to hire speakers or diversity trainers who plan to teach racial essentialism to staff or students.
HOUSE BILL 188
HB188 responds to teachers' frustrations about maintaining a classroom culture of respect and order.
This bill strikes the current North Carolina law that deems these acts minor infractions:
Cussing at a teacher
Bullying
Defying teachers’ commands
Physical assault
If passed, principals and school districts can enforce stricter classroom rules to create a safer, more conducive learning environment.
40% of teachers said students don't follow rules of conduct according to a state-wide survey last year. Only 23% of teachers strongly believed they had a role in establishing student discipline policies within their schools.
The survey showed that managing problem behavior under the current discipline guidelines was the third reason teachers were considering quitting their jobs.
The bill rolls back racial quotas in discipline practices and restores non-discrimination as a basis for creating and enforcing behavior policies.
The bill is on its way to the judiciary committee for review.
With reference to legislation as in this article, I emailed my representative (after watching the session yesterday) thanking him for his excellent comments and then recommending that the law/bill needs to (a) affirm that parents bear the primary responsibility for their child's education, (b) that public education originated to ASSIST parents in that responsibility, and NOT to take over that responsibility, and, therefore, (c) schools/teachers should be required to use state adopted textbooks (easy for parents to see what their students are being taught) rather than a miscellany of various resources (especially non-print), and, furthermore (d) any other resources (printed, AV, speakers, etc.) would have to receive parental approval BEFORE being implemented. Parents would have to have time to examine/meet/question/discus…