Beeler's bill targeting race, gender stereotyping in K-12 classrooms heading for Senate

State Rep. Andrew Beeler’s bill targeting race and gender ideals in curriculum for K-12 classrooms passed the House this week.

Though born from a broader anti-critical race theory movement among parents across the country, the Port Huron Republican has said they’ve been careful not to name specific theories or history programs addressing race in the measure.

With support among the state's Republican-majority legislature, Beeler said the House bill saw a couple of minor amendments addressing its language since he introduced it this summer.

Now, he said he wants to “continue to work it through the process” as it heads to the Michigan Senate, where another measure — that focuses more specifically on CRT and the New York Times’ 1619 Project as “anti-American” theories — has also made some headway.

But while he admits the bill is “probably unlikely” to get past Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk if also approved by state senators, Beeler said he didn’t think it should stop them from discussing larger concerns that inspired it.

“The goal is always to push good policy,” he said. “Whether or not something is going to get signed … I don’t think that changes my passion for the issue.”

Beeler’s House Bill 5097, which was also sponsored by 10 other legislators, proposes amending the state’s school code to broadly prohibit core curriculum from including “anything that could be understood as implicit race or gender stereotyping.”

CRT is a 1970s-founded movement that argues white supremacy sustains power through existing legal systems. It’s something educators and school district administrators have maintained is more likely to appear in a collegiate setting and is not being taught in local K-12 classrooms.

Meanwhile, 1619, re-examines the legacy of slavery in the U.S.Both are specifically named in Senate Bill 460, which was in committee in late October.

In addition to not naming such theories or programs, Beeler’s bill also doesn’t include any penalty or enforcement mechanism in the event it’s violated in a classroom.

Late Wednesday, the day after it passed the House, Beeler reiterated an earlier point that his goal was not to “put cameras in classrooms,” and that he trusted teachers to follow the law.

“Sure, it raises awareness, but it also tells parents that it is illegal in the state of Michigan to stereotype students in the classroom based on their race or their gender,” he said. “And so, if your student is coming home and given an assignment telling them that they need to deconstruct their own race or gender, or they need to acknowledge some sort of implicit racism or sexism based on immutable characteristics, that is against the law.”

Anti-CRT movement a step 'to cherry-pick history,' NAACP chapter president says

The subject of how race or inequity is taught in schools has been a popular but controversial topic to emerge among public commenters at school board meetings nationwide.

Kevin Watkins, president of the Port Huron branch of the NAACP, recalled a Port Huron schools meeting where it felt contentious early this school year, and he echoed similar concerns about legislators reaching into classrooms this week.

More critical of the anti-CRT movement than any single bill, however, he called the idea “a bunch of nonsense” — that it opens the door to people who want “to cherry-pick history.” He questioned where it would end and said it’d become increasingly difficult for educators to talk about what happened during the periods of slavery or Jim Crow, for example, “without talking about the ugliness of that.”

“Because his constituents...are uncomfortable with their children learning about history. You can’t do that,” said Watkins, also a former member school board member for Memphis schools.

“What it’s about is the 1619 Project. This is about Black people telling their story to the world, to America. ‘This is what happened. This is history.’ … From whence we come," he said. "I’m sorry they have to learn that. Of course, age-appropriate. But we will not take those books out of the library. We will not take that information out of appropriate history courses. Not without a fight.”

Beeler said he’s frustrated that some criticism feels like it’s more about “something else that’s not contained in this law.”

And as the bill has made its way through Lansing, he said he and colleagues have continued to hear from constituents with concerns about what their kids are taking home from school.

Outside of children being asked to deconstruct their race or gender, “or identify elements of them that are white,” Beeler said, “Other examples would include teacher trainings, which granted is not curriculum, but I think that it certainly points to the idea that an issue exists. Teacher training that encourages, and I would say almost mandates, teachers to address the elements of their teaching style and their personalities that are also elements of white supremacy.”

One Port Huron Northern High School history teacher mentioned training among his concerns related to CRT during a meeting for the state House’s education meeting in September when Beeler’s bill was considered.

Tim Keller, who ran against Beeler in the 83rd District’s August 2020 Republican primary, did not return a call for comment in follow-up. In September, he told legislators some of the anti-CRT arguments that had been taken to school officials had become “rather adversarial,” but that he understood the bigger problem with the “destructive thinking” in what he compared to other political or cultural movements that could infiltrate institutions like schools — even if CRT itself wasn’t on the docket for K-12 instruction.

“It’s really the ideas behind it that I have a problem with,” Keller said. “I think there are a lot of teachers and administrators who just want to help students achieve their fullest. And they don’t realize it, that in some of our trainings, these ideas are creeping in — that based on the color of your skin, you’re either a victim or an oppressor — and I want to nip that in the bud.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Beeler's bill targeting race, gender stereotyping in K-12 heading for Senate