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Bill to ban some topics in diversity training clears legislature, goes to governor
Rep. Steven Holt
Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives have sent a bill to the governor that would ban certain topics from government diversity trainings and school lessons.
The original bill referred to a list of divisive concepts that would be off-limits. The bill was adjusted to say teaching about slavery, sexism, segregation and racial discrimination are fine, but teaching that the state and country are fundamentally or systemically racist is banned.
“We don’t have to use racism to teach against racism,” Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, said. “We don’t need to have to be racist and scapegoat entire groups of people in order to teach against racism.”
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Neither classroom instruction at schools nor mandatory diversity training for government groups could teach certain concepts, such as that the United States is systemically racist, under a measure headed to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds desk.
The bill places limitations on the ideas that could be included in diversity training at those institutions, resembling a now-reversed executive order that President Donald Trump signed last year to oppose critical race theory, which teaches that racism is interwoven into America s institutions.
Iowa Republicans have called critical race theory racist and said the bill would prevent student indoctrination. Democrats have said the bill would have a chilling effect on needed discussions about racism and sexism, including concepts like structural racism and implicit bias.
Editorial Roundup: Iowa
Dubuque Telegraph Herald. April 30, 2021.
Editorial: Collaborative outside learning opportunity great for kids
It’s not every day frog catching and compass reading are on the day’s agenda for school children, but recently in Jackson County, both activities were part of the curriculum.
Fifth-graders participated in a week of outdoor learning as part of School of the Wild, a University of Iowa program offered locally with the help of staff from Jackson County Conservation and area schools. A group of Bellevue Elementary School students swept nets through the water at Green Island Wildlife Management Area, looking for frogs, snails and other creatures that would help them get a sense of the water’s quality.
Paul Brennan/Little Village
The Iowa House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of a bill intended to prohibit so-called “vaccine passports” on Monday. The bill was introduced on Friday, two weeks after Gov. Kim Reynolds called for such legislation.
“I strongly oppose vaccine passports and I believe that we must take a stand as a state against them, which I intend to do either through legislation or executive action,” the governor said during her April 7 news conference.
Of course, vaccine passports do not exist in the United States and the Biden administration has said it will not require Americans to have any sort of COVID-19 vaccination documentation.