MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Republican legislators have no idea what they’re talking about in trying to sanitize U.S, history by banning any mention of a role of white in creating public policy, says Representative LeKeishia Myers, a Black Democrat from Milwaukee. Myers opposes a bill to deny state funding to schools whose teachers espouse white supremacy as a historical reality. Their goal, she said, is keep students from even knowing about past racism by outlawing so-called “critical race theory.” “It’s ridiculous,” she said. They don’t even understand what critical race theory is.” Myers has served as an education director for the state Department of Corrections. She has a student support coach in Milwaukee schools. Under the bill, she said, teachers wouldn’t be able to tell students about how blacks won the right to vote or about Juneteenth, when Blacks celebrate their liberation from slavery in 1865. “As an educator, I was both offended and appalled at both the bills,” she said. “When you look at trying to erase history and couch it in a way to not hold people responsible, that’s dangerous territory.”
Earlier: State schools chief: Leave policies to local boards
GOP vs. educators
The National Education Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, and other educator groups seea chilling effect on teachers and classroom discussions at proposals un 16 states to sanitize the nation’s history denying the demonstrable the existence of white supremacy. The NEA has posted a message online for teachers to continue to provide accurate portrayals of history that include all people.
Myers. Dangerous to erase history.