TOPEKA — A coalition of Kansas faith leaders and education advocates are calling on lawmakers to reject legislation currently being drafted to ban or restrict teaching about U.S. racial history.
More than 50 people gathered Tuesday on the first floor of the Capitol in Topeka to rally against what they considered a concerted effort to dismantle diversity and inclusion initiatives at Kansas public schools. One such measure would establish a parental bill of rights, creating a series of transparency checks to ensure parents have knowledge of all material made available in school.
House Bill 2662 also compromises the affirmative defense for schools and educators if somebody charges them with promoting material harmful to minors. The House K-12 Education Budget Committee is set for a hearing on the measure Wednesday.
“This conversation about race or critical theory, whatever the right is calling it, is being used as an excuse to undermine support for public schools,” said Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director for Kansas Interfaith Action. “We need to reach out to kids from across different spectrums, bring them into the conversation and to center the experience of people not often centered in our history books.”
A handful of faith leaders, equal rights advocates and teachers joined Rieber to describe their view of the Kansas Legislature’s approach to education. The consensus was that careless laws are putting teachers in the crosshairs of angry parents and pushing some out of the field entirely.
Across the country, a discussion surrounding critical race theory — an academic framework analyzing the role of systemic racism in American society — has led to the passing of laws against its inclusion in curriculum, which advocates argue is a thinly veiled attack on all diversity policies. Members of the state board of education and local school boards have stated that critical race theory is not part of any Kansas curriculum.
Chloe Chaffin, a Washburn University student studying secondary English education, said she has always wanted to be a teacher. Stories of harassment over curriculum choices are the only thing holding her back and other young, aspiring teachers she has engaged with often feel similarly, she said.
“As I talk to my professors and students in my program, I often hear that our class sizes in the education program are getting smaller and smaller, that they aren’t able convince enough students to go into the profession, and I believe that bills such as these passing their way through the Legislature are a reason why,” Chaffin said.
Michael Rebne, a public school teacher and Roeland Park City Council member, said some legislators in the building were trying to villainize the teaching profession and that these efforts would hamper students’ chances for an equitable future.
“We need to help our students get to the children of this country in order to understand why it is so important to continue to fight for democracy and freedom,” Rebne said. “We’re here to tell the right-wing legislators inside this building that we will not carry their ignorance, racism and fear into our schools.”
