More than a dozen board members from five metro Atlanta school districts have put their names behind a letter opposing new legislation that seeks to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
Educators have been saying for months that the college-level concept is not taught in Georgia’s K-12 schools, but critics say its tenets about systemic racism are.
This week, a Republican lawmaker from Cherokee County introduced a bill that would dock schools a fifth of their state funding for violations. Among the prohibitions in House Bill 888: teaching that “the United States is a systematically racist country.”
And Gov. Brian Kemp, in his State of the State address Thursday, said he would work against critical race theory during the legislative session that started Monday. He said he wanted “to protect our students from divisive ideologies like critical race theory that pit kids against each other.”
The board members’ “open letter” was shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Cobb County school board member Dr. Jaha Howard. It says HB 888 attacks free speech, insults teachers and undermines public education. The chief co-sponsor of the bill is Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs, who said at a Cherokee County school board meeting in May that he was drafting legislation against critical race theory.
Most of the board members backing the letter are Black.
“Ironically, HB 888 embodies the very same ‘cancel culture’ its proponents claim to oppose. The broad prohibitions on what teachers can say regarding American history and the legacy of slavery would cancel our educators’ ability to teach truthfully,” says the letter, which was backed by 13 school board members as of Friday morning.
It says critical race theory isn’t taught in their schools and that the legislation “is attempting to leverage the manufactured outrage around” it to “whitewash” history by limiting what educators can say about racism, past and present.
In addition to Howard, the names on the letter were:
Eshe’ Collins, Atlanta Public Schools
Jason Esteves, Atlanta Public Schools
Erika Mitchell, Atlanta Public Schools
Sabrina Hill, Clayton County
Victoria Williams, Clayton County
Charisse Davis, Cobb County
Leroy “Tre” Hutchins, Cobb County
Diijon DaCosta, DeKalb County
Allyson Gevertz, DeKalb County
Tarece Johnson, Gwinnett County
Karen Watkins, Gwinnett County
Howard said Friday morning that Aretta Baldon of Atlanta Public Schools had added her name after he shared the document with the AJC. He said he expected the list of supporting board members to grow in coming days.
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