Lessons on race to be limited
Senate GOP revives bill that would regulate how the topic is taught
The day after it appeared to have been derailed by Democrats, a bill to limit the way teachers talk to their classes about racism is headed to the governor’s desk.
The measure, House Bill 3979, targets “critical race theory” and forbids teachers from discussing certain viewpoints in the classroom, including the concept that some people are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
Supporters said it would keep politics out of schools, while opponents said the measure — one of many sweeping GOP legislatures across the country — seeks to whitewash lessons about slavery and discrimination in America.
A procedural back-and-forth in the Texas House on Friday afternoon had significantly dimmed the bill’s chances of becoming law, but GOP leaders moved quickly to resuscitate the measure in the Senate.
The bill had already passed both chambers earlier this month after lengthy debate. But the versions didn’t match, and as the House considered the measure for a second time on Friday afternoon, Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, derailed the bill on a procedural basis.
He raised a point of order that the amendments the Senate had approved weren’t relevant to the bill
and that the measure now contained more than one subject. It was sustained, sending the bill back to the Senate with little time remaining in the legislative session, which ends Monday.
The maneuver came after Talarico interrogated the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, on the Senate’s removal of several House additions, including requirements that curricula include readings by people of color and that lessons clearly denounce white supremacy.
“Is it fair to say that any bill that strikes language condemning racism is a racist bill?” Talarico asked.
He went on to declare on Twitter: “As of now, the bill is effectively dead, but my colleagues and I are remaining vigilant in case there are efforts to revive it.”
A few hours later, Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola revived the bill in the Senate, introducing a motion to strip the bill of its Senate amendments and approve the version that passed in the House. The motion passed along party lines, after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick overruled another procedural objection from Democrats with little explanation why.
A spokesman for Patrick didn’t respond to a request for comment asking to explain the decision. But Talarico and other Democrats say Patrick “violated the Texas Constitution to bring HB 3979 back from the dead.”
“This blatant rule-breaking is stunning, and a frightening reminder of the danger Trump Republicans pose to our democracy,” Talarico tweeted early Saturday.
The Senate’s vote sent the bill back to the House on Saturday for administrative signatures, officials said. After that, the bill will head to the governor’s office.
Toth jabbed back at Talarico on Twitter: “Dead? Not so dead actually.”
Patrick, meanwhile, celebrated on his own Twitter account: “Senate saved Critical Race Theory ban after TXHouse point of order. HB 3979 now on glide path to @GregAbbott desk.”
He added the hashtag #no1619, referring to the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, a series of essays named for the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in colonial Virginia. The project examines slavery’s lasting impact on the United States and the contributions of Black Americans to the country.
The project has also stirred controversy and political backlash as school districts in some states adapt the essays into their curricula. Critics, and many Republicans, say the project is largely inaccurate and seeks to frame the United States as a racist country at its foundation, which they dispute.
But HB 3979 stretches beyond the 1619 Project. It attacks “critical race theory,” an academic movement that has become a buzzword among Republicans who debate the existence of white privilege and systemic racism. The measure prevents schools from requiring teachers to talk about current events, or from giving credits to students for engaging in “political activism,” which includes lobbying legislators and city council members or attending marches.
Opponents say the bill would also significantly restrict the way teachers talk about racism, inhibiting students’ understanding of the United States’ discriminatory past.
Toth told the Houston Chronicle earlier this month that racism is “part of our reality and … part of our shame, and we shouldn’t do anything to cover that up. But what we should also not do is blame that on tender, little children that have done nothing wrong.”