The Michigan State Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee on Tuesday will hold a hearing on an anti-critical race theory bill.
The legislation, which was introduced by Education and Career Readiness Committee Chair Lana Theis (R-Brighton), would seek to limit the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
“Critical race theory is an invention of the extremist political left that has manipulated academia for decades and is now targeting private businesses, public institutions and, sadly, our K-12 classrooms, where it is indoctrinating young minds with anti-American falsehoods,” Theis said in a statement.
Specifically, the bill would ban from Michigan K-12 curricula the use of so-called “critical race theory” and its derivatives, such as the 1619 Project.
In order to force school systems to comply, if enacted, the law would hold 5% of funding from a school that teaches that “certain races are fundamentally…oppressed.”
“Its ‘woke’ proponents reject our country’s true history and our founding principles, in favor of an identity-based cultural Marxist ideology that seeks nothing more than victimization, envy, division, discrimination, and ultimately the destruction of our country and way of life. This radical world view has no place in public education and my bill will make sure it never will,” Theis continued.
“We should not ignore the past sins of our nation, especially things as abhorrent as slavery and Jim Crow, nor should we allow the history we teach our children to be distorted and politicized by an ideological and historically inaccurate agenda.”
States across the country have moved to limit the influence of critical race theory in schools.
A similar bill, House Bill 5097 introduced by state Rep. Andrew Beeler (R-Ft. Gratiot), is making its way through the Michigan House of Representatives.
— — —
Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Committee Chair Lana Theis” by Senator Lana Theis.
