NC House approves delay in use of controversial new social studies standards

North Carolina Republican lawmakers want to delay the use of new social studies standards that conservative critics say are too negative about the nation’s history.

The state House voted 74-34 on Wednesday to pass a rewritten version of a COVID-19 relief bill that includes a one-year delay in implementing the social studies standards. Republicans say the delay is needed because the State Board of Education and the state Department of Public Instruction are still working on the documents that teachers will use.

“Could you imagine if you were in charge of curriculum at the local level and this is still not completed and it may be completed by the end of the month, that you have a month turnaround to turn that into a pacing guide and have some sort of staff development for your history teachers at the high school level,” said Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, a Wilkes County Republican.

“It doesn’t matter what’s in it. It’s just logistically impossible.”

Several Democrats objected on Wednesday, saying the last-minute change to this fall’s school schedules would negatively impact students and teachers. The challenge for Democrats is that the bill includes items that they support, such as $100 million in extra pay for teachers and $1,000 grants for families to help with learning loss.

“Delaying the implementation of these classes will cause even more work for our hardworking educators because of rescheduling, readjusting and rewriting their lesson plans for next year.” said Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat

The majority of Democrats voted against the bill. All Republicans and a minority of Democrats voted for the legislation.

On Wednesday, Elmore said DPI had requested the delay in social studies standards.

But State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said in a statement Wednesday that she had requested a delay earlier in the legislative session, but not recently.

Senate Bill 654 now goes back to the Senate to see if it supports the House’s changes.

Heated debate about new standards

In February, the State Board of Education voted 7-5 to adopt new K-12 social studies standards that call for teachers to more explicitly discuss racism and discrimination and the perspectives of historically marginalized groups.

Schools are supposed to begin using the new standards this fall.

The state board’s Democratic majority said the new standards would provide a fuller telling of the nation’s legacy. But the board’s Republican minority say the standards incorporate Critical Race Theory and paint an overly negative view of the nation’s history.

“Critical Race Theory” is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life,” according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department. This view holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.

Last weekend, former President Donald Trump told North Carolina Republicans at their state convention that they need to fight against critical race theory in schools. Bills have been introduced in at least 15 states, including North Carolina, to restrict the use of critical race theory in schools.

House Republicans cited critical race theory for passing a bill last month that creates new rules on how schools teach about race and history, including not promoting teaching that would make students feel guilt or discomfort due to their race or sex.

House Republicans also raised questions about what teachers are doing by passing a bill last month that would require public schools to list online all the instructional material they’re using, such as teacher lesson plans.

Impact of delay debated

Truitt, the superintendent, said schools “need clarity as soon as possible.”

“While this proposed delay benefits the department to ensure we can provide the proper professional development and appropriate implementation of the new standards, as well as train our teachers for the new economic and personal finance course, I find it discouraging that it has unfolded at the 11th hour,” Truitt said.

“The State Board of Education is required to move forward with implementation of these new history and civics standards per current statutory requirements and local school districts will potentially have to adjust schedules for nearly all 400,000 high school students.”

Von Haefen cited Truitt’s comments to unsuccessfully propose an amendment to remove the one-year delay.

“I ask for your support of this amendment to avoid these serious ripple effects across our state,” von Haefen said. “The effect of delaying these classes will prevent students from graduating, create hours of extra work for administrators and teachers and throw students’ schedules into chaos at every high school in North Carolina.”

But Elmore said he doubted the delay would impact the ability of students to graduate. He also questioned how well teachers coming off a year dealing with COVID issues could be expected to teach the new classes so soon.

“I’m sorry that this might inconvenience Superintendent Truitt, the State Board of Education, the administrator of the computer program that does the scheduling,” Elmore said. “What I’m concerned with is the actual instruction of these courses.”

Money for teachers, parents

The House added $340 million in federal COVID relief aid to the Senate’s bill, bringing the total to $359.9 million for the state’s public schools.

The largest new pot of money is $100 million to pay teachers an extra month of salary. Most teachers work under a 10-month contract. The bill would provide.money for an extra month of pay.

This 11th month would be paid to teachers to help students address COVID-19 learning loss. Teachers with 25 years or more of experience or who have received certain bonuses in the past based on their students’ test results would be eligible for the additional pay.

The House also included $10 million to create a “Student Success” program that would allow low-to-middle-income parents to get a $1,000 grant to help address COVID learning loss.

Delay in smaller kindergarten class sizes

The House also added Wednesday new language that elementary schools say would provide them potential relief this fall by delaying state-mandated kindergarten class-size reductions.

Elementary schools are bracing for a potential surge in kindergartners this fall after statewide kindergarten enrollment dropped 11.7% this year. Some families may have opted to wait a year because they didn’t want their children to attend in a virtual kindergarten environment.

Currently, no kindergarten class would be allowed to have more than 21 students this fall. But under the bill, kindergarten classes could have up to 23 students if a school district’s kindergarten enrollment is 5% more than the 2019-20 school year.