Arizona House votes to ban critical race theory in schools
(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - As part of the GOP’s nationwide push to block diversity instruction they’ve termed as “critical race theory," Arizona’s House of Representatives has voted to put limits on teaching race and gender in schools.
The measure is the latest front in the ever-evolving debate over how to teach U.S. history involving racism in the nation’s past and present.
This would ban instruction that “promotes or advocates for any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex.”
It also seeks to outlaw a list of concepts, including that a person should feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race, ethnicity or sex.
House Republicans voted along party lines to send the measure to the Senate. Democrats said the measure would chill discussions about history and contemporary event s in the classroom because teachers will fear losing their jobs if they broach the subject of race.
Republicans included a ban on critical race theory in the state budget last year, but it was among many new policies later thrown out by the Arizona Supreme Court.
