The Texas Legislature dealt with pesky critical race theory, which is not taught in Texas public schools. It did so indirectly.
A “teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” The law doesn’t define what a controversial issue is. If a teacher does discuss these topics, they must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”
The problem arises in America's permanent political campaign where every issue is distorted for political advantage. Public health is political. Science is political. Religion is political. Nothing is not political.
Red and Blue political teams will flip/flop on an issue in a heartbeat for perceived advantage. Consider how these groups can fight when they could agree and move forward.
In 2005 Randy Brinson, evangelical founder of Redeem the Vote, persuaded Democratic legislators in Alabama and Georgia to propose bills that would encourage Bible electives using a new textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, published by the Bible Literacy Project. Because that text had been reviewed by more than forty scholars (including this author), endorsed by some evangelical leaders, and successfully field-tested, Democrats saw such legislation as an opportunity to be religion friendly without violating the First Amendment.
Republicans in these states were not happy at the prospect of Democrats stealing their biblical thunder. One Georgia Grand Old Party senator accused the Democrats of “trying to put a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” and Georgia Republicans, who control both houses of the legislature, were able to scuttle the Democratic bill and pass their own version. Alabama Republicans managed to block their state’s bill in early 2006; efforts to revive it have stalled.
That was fifteen years ago. The political battle field has since worsened.
Politics is not robust enough to supersede the study of various disciplines, much less incorporate them as sub-political units. The manipulation of the public to drive voting is often crude and based on fiction, even outright lies.
For the Red Team truth is no longer truth. Truth is loyalty to Donald Trump, a Person of the Lie. The Blue Team sold its soul for money and power under corporacrat Bill Clinton. Since then, it levered up its soulless bargain with financial devils. Senators Manchin and Synema are Blue Team standard bearers.
Texas Reds prize themselves on independence. That does not extend to the classroom.
The law requires at least one teacher and one campus administrator at each school district to attend a civics training program that will teach educators how race and racism should be taught in Texas schools.
The Reds are regulating the teaching of thought. They need citizens incapable of critical thinking, of considering actual U.S. history, wrestling with social concerns and arriving at opinions/strategies as to how elected officials should address those issues.
Like the February freeze Texas elected officials designed a system to keep us in the dark. It's chilling.
Update 12-30-21: One person, one vote continues to be at risk with Red Team congress persons. If they won't enact public will, Congress can just reduce voters to the people they serve. Voting will be much cheaper with only policy making billionaires pulling the lever. Just print a few hundred paper ballots in the billionaires' private votaverse.
