Trending
CHARLESTON -- With less than five days left in the 2022 session, the first of two West Virginia House of Delegates committees took up the state Senate's version of a bill Monday aimed at keeping concepts derived from critical race theory out of public schools.
The House Education Committee recommended Senate Bill 498, the Anti-Racism Act, for passage Monday evening in a 17-7 vote, sending the bill to the House Judiciary Committee where a similar bill failed to make it past the deadline for bills to come out of committee.
SB 498 was on the House Education Committee's agenda during the first and only Saturday House session, but debate on other bills pushed consideration of the bill to Monday.
SB 498 prohibits the teaching that one race is morally or intellectually superior or inferior to another; or that one race is inherently racist either consciously or unconsciously. The bill prohibits teaching that an individual's moral character is derived from their racial identity or that they bear responsibility for actions committed by those of similar racial backgrounds.
The bill would prohibit making someone feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of their race. It prohibits labeling academic achievement, merit, or certain traits -- such as hard work -- as racist.
The Anti-Racism Act includes provisions protecting First Amendment freedom of speech and allowing the discussions of these subjects of race as part of an academic course as long as alternative theories are included, as well as discussions in a historical context or current events.
The bill creates a reporting system for parents, students and staff to report possible violations of the act to school principals, as well as an appeal process to the county superintendent. The bill also requires annual reports of complaints and the resolution of complaints by school principals, county superintendents, and the state superintendent of schools.
A strike-and-insert amendment to the bill offered by the House Education Committee took out provisions in the bill that applied to higher education. It also took out references to ethnicity, sex, and gender, making the bill only apply to issues of race. The strike-and-insert amendment passed 16-8.
Supporters of the bill said the Anti-Racism Act would help prevent children from feeling inferior because of their race, such as white children being told they or their family members were racist against minorities because they were white.
"When I go home on a break and this subject comes up and my 15-year-old twins tell me I'm inherently racist because I'm white and we have an ongoing two-hour debate over this scenario, their response is they learned it from school. That bothers me," said Del. Wayne Clark, R-Jefferson.
"This bill is a deterrent," said Del. Todd Longanacre, R-Greenbrier. "The myth that this is not happening in the State of West Virginia is just that - a myth. Just because it's not as trendy as it is in other states right now, just because it's not as overt as it is in other states, I hope that this bill keeps it that way."
Opponents of the bill believe that even with the bill's protections for free speech, academic freedom, and protections for the teaching of history, they believe that it will still discourage teachers from talking about complicated history and current events when it comes to race.
"There are going to be too many times when a teacher looks at a controversial subject and says either 'I'm going to stay away from this,' or 'I'm going to teach it in such a pablum way that we're not really giving the students the information,'" said Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson. "There was a period of time when we did whitewash our history. I'm afraid a bill like this will take us there again."
Del. Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, is the Legislature's only Black woman. She accused the Republican majority on the committee of wanting children to learn about the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. without learning the history behind the words.
"When we speak about history, our children learn something," Walker said. "You want to give these children the quote, but you don't want to give them the information."
Concerns were raised Monday that states that implement these kinds of bills aimed at limited discussion of concepts derived from critical race theory (CRT) could lose their advanced placement (AP) high school courses. The College Board released a statement last week saying it would remove AP designation from certain courses when states ban the topics, such as race.
"AP is animated by a deep respect for the intellectual freedom of teachers and students alike," the College Board stated. "If a school bans required topics from their AP courses, the AP Program removes the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP Course Ledger provided to colleges and universities."
Earlier Monday morning, the House Education Committee held a public hearing for SB 498, with the vast majority of speakers opposing the bill. Both the West Virginia Education Association and the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers oppose the bill. Those organizations were joined in their opposition by several members of West Virginia University's faculty.