News News from America North Dako­ta gov­er­nor signs bill ban­ning CRT in schools

North Dako­ta gov­er­nor signs bill ban­ning CRT in schools

The bill aims to ‘ensure’ that all cur­ricu­lum remains ‘fac­tu­al’

The gov­er­nor of North Dako­ta signed a bill Fri­day ban­ning crit­i­cal race the­o­ry (CRT) in schools, mak­ing North Dako­ta the lat­est Repub­li­can-con­trolled state to take leg­isla­tive action against CRT in pub­lic education. 

“This bill address­es the con­cerns of par­ents while pre­serv­ing the deci­sion-mak­ing author­i­ty of local school boards to approve cur­ricu­lum that is fac­tu­al, objec­tive and aligned with state con­tent stan­dards,” Gov. Doug Bur­gum told Fox News in a state­ment. He signed the bill Friday. 

KX News first report­ed that the bill cleared the Sen­ate. It passed the Sen­ate 38 – 9, accord­ing to the state leg­is­la­ture’s web­site. The bill cleared the state House 76 – 16 on Thursday. 

The anti-CRT bill was swift­ly intro­duced and approved dur­ing a spe­cial ses­sion that was called to address redis­trict­ing and the spend­ing of coro­n­avirus stim­u­lus money. 

In this April 10, 2020, file photo, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D. He has the chance to either sign or veto a bill banning critical race theory in North Dakota's public schools after it passed the state Senate Friday. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File)

In this April 10, 2020, file pho­to, North Dako­ta Gov. Doug Bur­gum speaks at the state Capi­tol in Bis­mar­ck, N.D. He has the chance to either sign or veto a bill ban­ning crit­i­cal race the­o­ry in North Dako­ta’s pub­lic schools after it passed the state Sen­ate Fri­day. (Mike McCleary/The Bis­mar­ck Tri­bune via AP, File)

“This bill is about crit­i­cal race the­o­ry, and it’s most­ly about pre­vent­ing it from being taught in our state,” Repub­li­can state Sen. Don­ald Schaible said Friday. 

“It’s a polit­i­cal ide­ol­o­gy … It is an ide­ol­o­gy that if we can indoc­tri­nate it into our chil­dren young it would have a polit­i­cal con­se­quence on our chil­dren lat­er,” Repub­li­can state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who intro­duced the bill in the Sen­ate, said. “We’re not talk­ing about teach­ing his­to­ry and racism, I deplore racism as I think every­body in this body does … We need to teach true his­to­ry, and we need to teach all of it.”

The one-page bill says that pub­lic schools and dis­tricts “shall ensure instruc­tion on its cur­ricu­lum is fac­tu­al” and “may not include instruc­tion relat­ing to crit­i­cal race the­o­ry.” It gives the state school super­in­ten­dent the author­i­ty to cre­ate rules to enforce the CRT ban.

The bill defines crit­i­cal race the­o­ry as “the the­o­ry that racism is not mere­ly the prod­uct of learned indi­vid­ual bias or prej­u­dice, but that racism is sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly embed­ded in Amer­i­can soci­ety and the Amer­i­can legal sys­tem to facil­i­tate racial inequality.” 

The Amer­i­can Civ­il Lib­er­ties Union (ACLU) of North Dako­ta argues the bill is about cen­sor­ship in the classroom. 

The bill “is a direct affront to the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of teach­ers and stu­dents across North Dako­ta by restrict­ing con­ver­sa­tions around race in our schools,” ACLU North Dako­ta cam­paigns direc­tor Lib­by Skarin said. “This bill is intend­ed to inflame a polit­i­cal reac­tion, not fur­ther a legit­i­mate edu­ca­tion­al interest.”

A stock photo of students in a classroom. The North Dakota Senate Friday passed a bill to ban critical race theory in schools. The office of Gov. Doug Burgum did not return multiple requests for comment from Fox News about whether he will sign it. 

A stock pho­to of stu­dents in a class­room. The North Dako­ta Sen­ate Fri­day passed a bill to ban crit­i­cal race the­o­ry in schools. The office of Gov. Doug Bur­gum did not return mul­ti­ple requests for com­ment from Fox News about whether he will sign it. 

North Dako­ta is far from the first state to address crit­i­cal race the­o­ry in leg­is­la­tion. Accord­ing to the Brook­ings Insti­tu­tion, eight states had passed bills relat­ing to CRT as of August this year. 

Crit­i­cal race the­o­ry has become a major divi­sive fac­tor in Amer­i­can pol­i­tics. A Fox News vot­er analy­sis of the Vir­ginia gov­er­nor’s race last week showed that one-quar­ter of vot­ers cit­ed the CRT debate as the sin­gle most impor­tant fac­tor on their minds when they cast their votes. Among those vot­ers, 71% vot­ed for Repub­li­can Glenn Youngkin, who won the election. 

Source: foxnews​.com

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