A new Tennessee law that bans “implicit bias training” in school took effect ahead of the new school year, which begins in the second week of August for most students.
HB015 bans school administrators from forcing teachers, faculty, and staff to be trained on implicit biases, which typically involves teaching that one race is inherently biased against another simply by existing.
Specifically, the law defines “implicit bias training” as “a training or other educational program designed to expose an individual to biases that the training’s [sic] or educational program’s developer or designer presumes the individual to unconsciously, subconsciously, or unintentionally possess that predispose the individual to be unfairly prejudiced in favor of or against a thing, person, or group to adjust the individual’s patterns of thinking in order to eliminate the individual’s unconscious bias or prejudice.”
The practice is now banned in Tennessee’s public schools and public institutions of higher learning.
Meanwhile, the Tennessee Education Association (TEA), the state’s largest union, is suing Gov. Bill Lee (R) over a recently enacted “divisive concepts” law, widely known as an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) bill.
Tennessee’s HB2670 bans teaching content that “promotes division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class, or class of people,” and teaching concepts that “ascribes character traits, values, moral or ethical codes, privileges, or beliefs to a race or sex, or to an individual because of the individual’s race or sex.”
It also bars schools from discriminating against students who dissent from any doctrine included in the divisive concepts law.
“A student or employee of a public institution of higher education must not be penalized, discriminated against, or receive any adverse treatment due to the student’s or employee’s refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, act upon, or otherwise assent to one or more divisive concepts,” the law says.
The TEA’s lawsuit says that without teaching divisive concepts, students are deprived of a quality education.
The lawsuit suggests that teaching about the history of slavery will run afoul of the “divisive concepts” law and says that the statute’s language is unconstitutionally vague.
“There is no group of individuals more passionate and committed to ensuring Tennessee students receive a high-quality education than public school educators,” said Tennessee Education Association President Tanya Coats, who is also a teacher in Knox County, in a TEA press release. “This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students.”
“Laws need to be clear. The prohibited concepts law conflicts with the state’s own academic standards and curriculum, which creates unfair risks to Tennessee teachers using state approved materials, following state standards, and providing fact-based instruction,” Coats said. “Educators have already spent countless hours trying to understand and navigate the law’s unclear requirements.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
The Solution to Stop the Indoctrination of children in government funded schools is ABOLISH THE FEDERAL DEPT OF EDUCATION. There is no Constitutional authority for the Federal government to run the Education of our Children. Our State Government Education Department are better able to serve the taxpayers. The Fed takes our tax dollars & turns around & ” grants” it back to the States which will abide by their Ideological BS.
Take the Parents Power back. DEFUND THE FED.
GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK TO THE STATES & WE WILL DECIDE WHAT TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN.
ANOTHER BENEFIT: There will no longer be a need fir the TEA to use teachers donations to support Democrats.
CRT and the likes are only the most recent efforts of “educators” to indoctrinate our children with insane drivel. But this type of activity has been prevalent for many years. Just think COMMON CORE. Rich idiots like Bill Gates are making a ton of money from these off the wall efforts.
The fast fading CRT and DEI woke movements were actually a “cottage industry” that created jobs for some that are unemployable. They ardently push their ideology not by belief, rather by need to justify their position. It seems common sense is folding back into our society and it is long overdue. Time to run the woke out of office and out of town.
Public education struggles to teach children to read. There is no group committed to a higher “quantity” of nonsense and the destruction of civil society than academics. The deranged ideas were taught by professors in college, now they simply lack the mental capacity to understand anything else. Stop the indoctrination of children.