February 22, 2022 |
The state senate Monday took on the hot-button issue of critical race theory, passed on first reading a bill that bans CRT from Wyoming classrooms. The vote to approve the bill, though, came after the term “critical race theory” was removed from the language of SF103.
The Education Committee had advanced the bill to Senate floor a 25-5 vote. The chair of the Education Committee, Senator Charles, Scott, said the gist of SF 103 is to prevent hate and division from being taught in schools. To that end, Scott said, the bill is made stronger if the term “critical race theory” is struck from its original language.
Senator Bo Biteman, a co-sponsor of the bill objected to the change, but it passed narrowly 16-13. Scott read the amended the bill.
Debate was robust. Objections were few but pointed. Senator Cale Case of Lander said the bill allows the legislature to stick its nose into the classroom where it did not belong.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Troy McKeon of Campbell County pushed back against Case’s allegation. Last year, McKeon said, the legislature passed a bill last year that developed the so-called “basket of goods which guides the curriculum.” SF 103 is less about what’s taught than how, he added.
McKeon, is a veteran. He recalled his time in the army where he said the “only color was green.” No topic among the enlisted soldiers in his company was off-limits. McKeon said everybody learned from each other’s differing points of view, but they were unified by their singular purpose in uniform. The singular purpose of CRT, McKeon suggested, is to divide groups through the use of labels.
Senator Lynn Hutchings is the only black member of the Wyoming Legislature. Hutchings, a Cheyenne Republican, said no one in her family can recall encountering structural racism, a pivotal tenant in critical race theory, in their business or professional lives. CRT, she said, is a lie.
Senator Larry Hicks of Baggs brought the subject back to the classroom. Hicks recalled a quote from President Abraham Lincoln, the white president who freed the slaves brought from Africa.
None of the opponents in the senate rose to defend Critical Race Theory as either a valid teaching tool or an accurate view of American history and culture. When the voice vote came at the end of the 30-minute debate, opposition was light.
SF 103 faces two more readings and the possibility of amendments.
