Educators Call for Honesty in Teaching as Legislature Takes Up Bills
The Legislature’s education committees have held a joint public hearing on bills (SB411/AB411), which would prevent educators from providing age-appropriate, honest and complete history in K-12 schools.
The bill is part of a national push against educators teaching honestly about our society in a historical context, including systemic racial inequality and how people have organized and created coalitions across race, class and gender.
WEAC is opposed to the bill to allow politicians, not the educators who know students’ names, to determine what and how to teach. “In Wisconsin and across America, there’s a disturbing push to stop educators from teaching honestly about our society in a historical context, including realization of systemic racial inequality and of people who have organized and created coalitions across race, class and gender,” said WEAC President Ron Martin. “It is my professional and moral responsibility to teach my students about the contributions of all of their ancestors and all of those whose stories were left out of textbooks. There is no substitute for the truth.”
A second bill in the statewide package to limit discussion on how historic context has led to inequities in today’s America will be taken up by the Assembly Government Accountability and Oversight Committee on Wednesday, as well. This bill would prohibit local and state governments from including sex and race stereotyping in training provided to employees. Under the bill, locals that violated the ban would see their shared revenue payments reduced 10 percent.
Posting Learning Materials Online
The Joint Education Committee will also take testimony August 11 on legislation that would require school boards to post online information on learning materials used in pupil instruction (SB463/AB488).
