Critical race theory prohibition measure advances in NC Senate

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson presented a report on submissions made to his new Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force, which solicits examples of indoctrination and hostile classroom environments in North Carolina K-12 schools and colleges.

Robinson said parents and educators were concerned about students being coerced into believing certain ideas.

North Carolina has more than 2,000 public schools and more than 93,000 public school teachers.

Robinson and others repeatedly said they believe the large majority of teachers aren’t a problem and are good teachers.

“What this is is an attempt to stop the abuse of the teaching profession by the few who are using that profession to put undue pressure on young minds to accept their way of thinking,” Robinson said during a news conference preceding the committee meeting.

When asked how many submissions reflected things that would be illegal under House Bill 324, Robinson said “probably more than one” but that he didn’t count them.

The ideas listed in the legislation are feared potential derivatives of the use of critical race theory in analyzing history and current events. Those include believing one race or sex is inherently superior and believing any individual should feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” solely because of his or her race or sex.

House Bill 324 doesn’t use the term “indoctrination” but rather seeks to ban educators from “promoting” certain ideas. The bill defines “promoting” as “compelling students, teachers, administrators, or other school employees to affirm or profess belief” in certain ideas.

Democratic lawmakers disputed Tuesday whether indoctrination had been proven to exist in schools, and Republican lawmakers argued the complaints submitted by parents showed indoctrination, because some parents said their children were concerned to speak their opinions in class.

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, called fear over critical race theory being taught in schools a “Fox News-driven issue.”

Chaudhuri said the task force was a witch hunt for teachers and not the best use of the government’s resources.

Robinson angrily disputed Chaudhuri's characterization, calling it an insult to concerned teachers and parents.

"I have stood with teachers who have cried because they have – they feel like their jobs and livelihoods and professions have been threatened," he said. "For you to call it that is an insult, an absolute insult."

The task force report Tuesday, which highlighted some complaints made by parents about what they believed was happening in their children’s schools, is evidence that critical race theory is in schools, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said, noting complaints of discussions about white privilege in class.

Berger, R-Rockingham, called the concept "woke-ism."

"It’s surface-level, race-determinative-everything nonsense, he said. “This is real, and it’s a problem, and it has nothing to do with the teaching about our country’s past.

Students must learn about the Wilmington Coup and other events of North Carolina's racial history, he said, but they shouldn’t look at everything in history through a racial lens.

Several parents spoke in favor of the bill and urged senators to pass it.

"What children are being taught today in schools by radical Marxist educators and administrators is sickening. It is filth, and is full of lies," Wake County parent Clayton Dillard said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt joined Robinson and Berger at the news conference and emphasized that “without a doubt, there are excellent and incredible things happening in schools” and that the “vast majority” of teachers use their influence responsibly.

Truitt said she was disappointed in some of the examples from Robinson’s report and argued that House Bill 324 would provide safeguards to ensure educators teach “multiple perspectives” on issues.

“Teachers are not even allowed to leave grounds to go to lunch, but when a teacher is alone in a classroom with their students, they have enormous latitude,” Truitt, a former Johnston County teacher, said.

Nationally, bills have appeared in dozens of state legislatures meant to limit conversations about race, gender or LGBTQ issues in classrooms. Many have been authored by national conservative think tanks, while pushback against critical race theory at local school boards has come from local parents who coordinate nationwide.

Who all has contributed to the crafting of North Carolina’s legislation is unclear.

When asked last month who had worked on it and if lawmakers had worked with any civil rights groups of teacher groups, Berger, a sponsor of the bill, said lawmakers had talked with constituents, colleagues and opinion writers. He noted that Robinson, who is Black, has been the biggest proponent of the bill.

The bill has no Black sponsors or co-sponsors.

House Bill 324 bans the teaching of seven concepts, as well as the use of materials to promote them. It doesn’t ban schools from assigning materials that incorporate the seven things, so long as “the public school unit does not sponsor, approve, or endorse such concepts or works.”

The seven concepts banned are teaching that:

The bill doesn’t prohibit First Amendment-protected speech, and it doesn’t prohibit people from accessing materials that advocate for the seven banned concepts, so long as they do so “on an individual basis.”

After clearing the Senate Education committee, the measure has one more stop before reaching the Senate floor for debate.

Accusations of McCarthyism, biased teachers among complaints sent to Lt. Gov.'s 'indoctrination' task force

On Tuesday, several Republican officials picked examples of complaints to highlight. Based on the submissions, Robinson said the task force had accomplished its mission of finding out whether indoctrination was occurring in schools.

“The overwhelming answer is yes, it is,” Robinson said.

Earlier this summer, WRAL reviewed the 506 submissions made to the task force and found most are merely messages of support for the task force, messages against it, joke submissions, messages in support of teachers, complaints about pandemic health protocols or accusations that the task force is a 2021 version of McCarthyism.

The complaints about indoctrination and the complaints against the task force’s mission illustrate the divide between those who believe the United States is a full meritocracy, in which anyone can succeed through hard work, and those who believe the United States is home to people who start off disadvantaged when they are born, chiefly because of their race, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Of the task force submissions that concerned classroom activities, the complaints mostly concerned three things: sex education and LGTBQ issues, the alleged bias in or inappropriate nature of classroom materials and discussions on race.

Complaints often asserted that certain topics, such as equal pay, LGBTQ issues or racism were too “mature” topics for elementary school students.

Concerns about race being discussed in class didn’t concern a disagreement over facts of history, but rather which facts to emphasize and how to contextualize them and which conclusions could be correctly drawn from those facts. Some were concerned about source materials, such as national news media or educational websites they felt were left-leaning.

"There is no place for some of the stuff we discovered in this report. We need to get back to the business of education," Robinson said.

Social studies teachers told WRAL they’re concerned about the impact the task force and the proposed legislation might have on beginning teachers. They aren’t as concerned about the potential impact on themselves, noting that they’re established teachers with years of instructional support and relationships with colleagues.

Republican leaders on Tuesday rejected that idea and said teachers merely have to keep their opinions out of teaching.

“It really is simple,” Robinson said.

What happens next for the task force isn’t clear. It’s met only one time, in early June for an introductory meeting in which Robinson’s office went over some of the submissions. Members had not been given copies of the submissions at the time, after the meeting or prior to WRAL’s report on them, which came from a public records request, in mid-July.

Robinson said the task force and his office will look into the veracity of complaints, which are often secondhand accounts, but he wasn’t sure what would happen after investigation. He said the task force is in “uncharted territory.”

“We don’t know what that next level is yet,” he said.