Proponents say the measures address a widespread problem in classrooms that they have yet to document to the satisfaction of skeptics. Opponents call it a cynical strategy to increase turnout in an election year after the pandemic and racial protests have divided the country.
Rep. Will Wade, the author of HB 1084, compiled a list of a handful of incidents, including an old Gwinnett County high school curriculum with the words “Critical Race Theory” (the county said it was never shown to students) and an Atlanta school where students were allegedly assigned classrooms based on race. He said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that all he wants is a fair trial for parents who believe their school has crossed a line.
The legislation would “put in place a process to confirm, OK, what’s the actual thing there,” the Dawsonville Republican said. “Let’s talk about what happened.” It would give parents a chance to feel heard, he said, adding, “If there’s a serious violation, I really think most schools will address that.”
Teachers could still teach history, he said, but they couldn’t express their political beliefs. He said he worked with groups representing teachers and school boards to write the bill.
They said they don’t support it.
“All this legislation does is muzzle our teachers and make them a straw man for political gain from the real divisive voices in our communities,” said MP Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, a former Sixth grade teacher. Wilson, who is white, enacted the legislation in response to white people’s uneasiness about race in America. “This bill is whiter than the paper it’s printed on,” he said.
Rep. Doreen Carter, D-Lithonia, is a member of the education committee that reviewed the bill and said she never received a convincing response from Wade about the need. She called it a “solution in search of a problem”.
The language in Georgia’s four bills was essentially taken from a September 2020 executive order by then-President Donald Trump that identified “divisive concepts” and banned them from training federal employees. (The order was reversed by President Joe Biden.)
Educators say no one teaches such performances in K-12 public schools, but Republicans who support these bills insist the problem is big enough to justify such explicit bans.
Numerous similar bills have been filed in other states, and at least a dozen states have enacted laws or policies regulating how race can be taught in schools, according to the Washington Post, which has documented early episodes ranging from Florida’s canceled teacher training courses to complaints from students or parents about political symbols such as Black Lives Matter or a rainbow flag.
Wade said he borrowed the language in his bill from legislation in other states and from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative national group.
People see different things in legislation depending on their point of view.
Abbie Fuksman, a board member of the Atlanta Jewish Community Relations Council, said in a Legislative Committee hearing Monday that language in Senate Bill 377, which is similar to that in HB 1084, would introduce a “slippery slope” that could erase the doctrine of slavery or holocaust.
“This type of legislation is designed to protect Georgia students from uncomfortable conversations, but the story is inherently uncomfortable,” she said at a lawmakers’ hearing in late February. “It’s full of people being wronged by others.”
But Taylor Hawkins, a lobbyist at Frontline Policy Action, a fundamentalist Christian organization that supports restrictions on abortion and transgender students in sports, disagreed. He said the bans would not prevent teaching about the Holocaust or slavery, but would prohibit advocating for supremacy.
“It doesn’t limit the lesson of history from that,” he said. “It limits you to be racist in the classroom as a teacher.”
Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said such legislation creates a “hostile” relationship between teachers and parents. She fears overworked administrators will be bombarded with parental complaints and feel political pressure to justify them.
Current Georgian legislation
House Bill 1084: Would allow the state board of education to penalize districts that teach divisive concepts by removing their access to waivers from the state education law. All but two of the 180 school districts have them.
Senate Bill 377: Would penalize schools that teach divisive concepts by withholding up to 10% of their state funding. Colleges and universities could lose an unspecified amount. It also aims to train workers for government agencies.
These bills have been introduced but not yet discussed
House Bill 888: School districts would withdraw 20% of their state funding for violations. It does not use the word “divisive,” but the wording of the concepts it would ban is similar.
Senate Bill 375: Would ban divisive concepts in workers’ education for schools and for state and local government agencies.
