North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has signed new legislation prohibiting critical race theory (CRT) in schools. The move makes North Dakota the newest Republican-controlled state to affirm its stance on CRT and ban it from public education.
"This bill addresses the concerns of parents while preserving the decision-making authority of local school boards to approve curriculum that is factual, objective and aligned with state content standards," Gov. Burgum explained to Fox News in a statement. The bill was passed into law on Friday.
House Bill 1508, which was sponsored by Republican Representative Jim Kasper of Fargo, passed the House on Thursday with a 76 to 16 vote. On Friday, the Senate passed it with a 38 to 9 vote. The bill banning critical race theory in classrooms in North Dakota was quickly introduced and approved during a special session that was called to tackle the coronavirus stimulus funds and to address redistricting.
Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who introduced H.B. 1508 to the Senate, explained that CRT is a "political ideology...that if we can indoctrinate it into our children young it would have a political consequence on our children later."
Sen. Myrdal argued that while she "[deplores] racism as everybody in this body does," leaders and educators "need to teach true history, and we need to teach all of it."
H.B. 1508 states that public schools and districts "shall ensure instruction on its curriculum is factual" and "may not include instruction relating to critical race theory." It also empowers the state school superintendent to establish rules on how to enforce banning critical race theory in classrooms across North Dakota.
Opponents of H.B. 1508 denounced the law because they believed it would make students unprepared to face life outside North Dakota. Some legislators who were against the measure banning critical race theory in classrooms believed that mandating what the state's schools can and cannot teach erodes control from the school boards, the Williston Herald reported.
Democratic Senator Erin Oban of Bismarck argued that local schools are dealing with other real issues than CRT in classrooms and that it's just people's "fear and mistrust" brought about by the COVID pandemic that is being taken advantage of by hot topics such as CRT. Calling it a "red herring," Sen. Oban said that "the bill is not a serious policy" for making a "mockery" of North Dakota laws and for censoring learning instead of "having difficult conversations."
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota also opposed the bill, saying it was a "classroom censorship bill."
According to Newsweek, a vast majority of schools in the U.S. actually do not require teachers to cover critical race theory in class. In a survey conducted by the Association of American Educators, researchers found that oer 96% of its 1,134 respondents were not required to teach CRT in their classrooms. Only 45% of respondents said that teachers should be given the option to include the theory in their curriculums.
