Bill to curb racial teachings advances in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A state Senate hearing on how racial concepts are taught in North Carolina classrooms devolved into chaos Tuesday when one of the state's highest-ranking Republicans shouted at a prominent Democratic lawmaker and stormed out of the room.
Despite the uproar, the Senate Education Committee ultimately advanced the measure, which would bar teachers from compelling students to personally adopt any of 13 beliefs. North Carolina is one of more than two dozen states where GOP lawmakers have moved to define how racism and sexism can be taught in schools.
An hour before the hearing, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson held a news conference with other top Republicans and released an 831-page task force report highlighting instances when teachers allegedly assigned inappropriate reading materials on racism and sexuality to young pupils.
Democrats on the committee grilled Robinson, saying he and other Republicans could not identify a single case where the bill — if signed into law - would prevent such cases of “indoctrination” from taking place. Senate Democratic Whip Jay Chaudhuri accused Robinson and his task force of threatening educators.
“This week marks the first week of our kids going back to school, and I feel that we should be spending time this week honoring our children, and instead, we're spending time debating a Fox News-driven issue that's more about fear-mongering and has turned into a fishing expedition of our public school teachers,” Chaudhuri said.
Robinson took issue with Chaudhuri's assertion the conservative network is driving the discussion.
“For you to call it that is an insult, an absolute insult,” Robinson exclaimed. “You know where my office is and you know that this task force is going on. When did you contact me?”
When the Republican chairing...