The critical race theory controversy drives an hourslong legislative debate over classroom instruction in Wisconsin
Molly BeckMADISON - Wisconsin lawmakers, educators and parents spent hours Wednesday debating whether school districts need more rules over what can be taught in classrooms and whether parents should have broad access to teachers' materials.
At the heart of the daylong hearing at the Wisconsin State Capitol was the explosive controversy of critical race theory even though the legislation under debate doesn't mention the concept, which argues racism has permeated American institutions and created disadvantages for people of color.
The bills were introduced earlier this year by Republican lawmakers as part of a national movement among conservatives against teaching children that systemic racism exists, a fight against an ambiguous threat that has educators concerned teachers will be pressured to whitewash history lessons.
"Teachers do not deliberately set out to make students feel bad about themselves. The problem this bill seems to identify, that Wisconsin's teachers intentionally or otherwise want to make students feel bad, is simply not real," said Jeremy Stoddard, a University of Wisconsin-Madison curriculum and instruction professor.
"What I fear is that if it becomes law, it will have a chilling effect inhibiting teachers from teaching a full account of history."
Republican lawmakers and parents on Wednesday said their support of the bills was rooted in finding inappropriate classroom materials and lessons. They argued parents should be provided immediate access to everything teachers plan to use in classrooms and that white students shouldn't be told they are to blame for their ancestors' role in slavery or that the U.S. is inherently racist.
"It's not our duty to control school boards or school board philosophies or agendas," bill author Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego, said. "The bill gives parents recourse that if someone is breaking the law, that they have access to those materials ... this bill does not restrict teaching history."
Alyssa Pollow, a mother of children in Germantown schools, said she supports the bills because "some of your educators are not focused on objective academics, but instead are using classroom time and school resources to push harmful political agendas."
Rarely did anyone participating in the hearing agree on what the bills actually did or what critical race theory means. When asked, Wichgers declined to provide his definition of the concept.
"I think we're talking past each other right now," Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie, said at one point.
"(We) want history to be told as it was and as it really happened and something that we have to recognize. But at the same token, that history doesn't make you as a Black person a victim. That history doesn't make me a racist with white privilege either," she said.
At another point, Assembly Education Committee chairman Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac, barred Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, from asking Wichgers if he believed Wisconsin was the worst state to raise a Black child — a designation the state has received in the past based on measures of children's well-being.
"No, we are not going that route," he said.
"It goes to the heart of the bill," she responded.
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Rep. LaKeshia Myers, a Democrat from Milwaukee and former history teacher, said neither she nor her colleagues have ever told a white student to feel responsible for the actions of their ancestors.
She said the supporters of the bills were mischaracterizing the theory.
"What it does is tell me that yes, I live in the greatest nation in this world — in the United States," Myers said. "It has a very rich and interesting and sometimes harrowing and horrendous history that I have to be able to understand, digest, create my own thought process on, build on, hope to never repeat some of the bad things, build on the good things, and continue on."
The bills would bar educators from teaching "race or sex stereotyping," require school districts to publicly post curriculum materials and would penalize districts with funding cuts that allow students to be taught that certain races or sexes are superior or racist and should be held accountable for actions of people in the past of the same race or sex.
The bills also allow parents to sue districts for violations and would bar districts from teaching systems based on meritocracy "created by individuals of a particular race to oppress individuals of another race."
A spokeswoman for Gov. Tony Evers did not answer whether he would veto the measures, but Evers has opposed legislation in the past that has put more state oversight on school-level decisions.
Groups register opposition to bills
Nearly two dozen groups representing schools and children's wellbeing registered against the bills, many saying the ambiguous language could lead to dangerous censorship of important historical events.
"How can you not discuss racism or sexism at some level when discussing the following events, to name just a few? The Crusades, The Civil War, The 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, World War 2 ..." said Kim Kaukl, executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance, in prepared testimony.
Ann Herrera Ward, one of just a handful of practicing teachers to testify, said the bill as written will be confusing to teachers and leave them responsible for potential funding losses.
"That would be on my shoulders based on what I say, what I present, and what I do," she said.
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Herrera Ward said teachers are already providing a transparent and balanced curriculum. She gave the example of a lesson she created about the 2012 recall election of former Gov. Scott Walker that she taught to Walker's son Matt when she worked at Wauwatosa East High School.
"I didn't need a state bill to make sure that I would be transparent about what I was teaching and why I was doing it. Gov. Walker agreed. His wife agreed. Matt felt comfortable. And to be honest, at the end of the semester, tears were shed in my classroom about how everyone learned," she said. "Mrs. Walker thanked me for teaching the other side. ... That's what we do."
Legislation prohibiting 'sex and race stereotyping' in trainings
Another Assembly committee on Wednesday held a hearing on similar but separate legislation that would prohibit “sex and race stereotyping” in trainings for state and local government employees. The state could withhold 10% from agency positions or shared revenue funding to local governments. Employees could file a complaint or file civil actions for an alleged violation.
The bill’s authors said it would not be illegal to discuss that racism exists and said they thought critical race theory promoted racism.
“We are trying to keep racism from being promoted or racist concepts from being promoted. So this is essentially anti-racism legislation in that respect,” Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, said.
Rep. Jodi Emerson, a Democrat of Eau Claire, said she was worried the bill could have a “chilling effect” if small local governments that hire out nonprofits or guest speakers to hold trainings on topics like human trafficking that differentiate between sexes decide not to hold them based on the language of the bill.
Norman Davis, the director of the Department for Civil Rights in the City of Madison, said the bill was a “deceptive attempt to place a gag order on any public discourse that acknowledges the institutions of slavery, Jim Crow, restrictions on voting rights, redlining, to name a few.”
“This battle is not really about the academic concept of critical race theory but an attack on important, good efforts to teach about the role of systemic and institutionalized racism in our society,” Davis said.
Hope Karnopp of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.