Louisiana s 2020 Teacher of the Year responds to a proposed bill making it potentially illegal to teach about racism and sexism.House Bill No. 564 was filed by Rep. Ray Garofalo, the head of Louisiana’s House Education Committee. The proposed bill addresses “training with respect to certain concepts related to race and sex in elementary and secondary schools and postsecondary education institutions.” The bill defines “training” as “the teaching and education of a student or employee by means of lecturing or textbooks, audiovisual materials, or any other kind of reference materials.” Chris Dier, 2020 Louisiana Teacher of the Year & National Teacher of the Year Finalist, calls this bill dangerous and says it takes a huge chunk out of American history. There s one piece of the bill that says that you can t teach about institutionalized or systemic, or fundamental racism in the United States or Louisiana. And as a history teacher, that presents a problem for me bec
The head of Louisianaâs House Education Committee introduced a bill that would make it illegal to teach about systemic racism and sexism at Louisiana universities and K-12 schools that receive state funds.
The bill was presented April 2 for the upcoming Louisiana Legislatureâs 2021 regular session by Rep. Ray Garofalo and is pending in the House Education Committee.
It would prevent universities and K-12 schools that receive state funds from teaching âthat either the United States of America or the state of Louisiana is fundamentally, institutionally or systemically racist.â
Furthermore, it would outlaw teaching that âthe concepts of capitalism, free markets or working for a private party in exchange for wages are racist and sexist or oppress a given race or sex.â