How A 'Critical Race Theory' Bill Could Affect Wisconsin Classrooms

WISCONSIN — A Wisconsin State Assembly bill would limit how teachers talk about race and sex in classrooms across the state passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

AB 411 would prohibit schools from teaching about "race or sex stereotyping," including concepts like unconscious bias, and would limit anti-racism and anti-sexism instruction in K-12 schools, according to the text of the bill.

The proposal closely follows a nationwide trend of Republican legislators targeting ideas associated with "critical race theory," a collegiate-level framework that explains racism as resulting from systemic forces in the nation's institutions rather than from individual bias, the Associated Press reported.

The bill would ban teaching a person should feel guilty for past acts committed by people of their race or sex, or teaching systems based on meritocracy are racist or sexist, according to the text of the bill.

Teachers would also be barred from teaching one race or sex is superior to another, that a person is inherently racist or sexist by virtue of their race or sex, or that a person's moral character is determined by race or sex.

Patch has seen no programs or lesson plans that teach anything similar in any Wisconsin schools.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction introduced its own culturally responsive practice instructions and strategies to close racial achievement gaps, but none of the plans include practices that the bill said it intends to counter.

Under the proposed law, school boards would also be required to post curriculums on their websites and provide copies upon request.

Just over 4 percent of educators in U.S. schools said they were mandated to teach critical race theory, as they understood it, according to an Association of American Educators poll that was released in July 2021.

See More: Few U.S. Educators Teaching Critical Race Theory: Survey

State Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) said at a hearing the bill wouldn't protect anyone. "It's not racist to tell the truth about slavery and how it lingers" in the United States, she added.

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) shared Taylor's questions about the bill and said diversity training would do good for Wisconsin's youth. "Do we not think children don't experience racism?" she said in a hearing.

State Rep. Chuck Wichgers (R-Muskego,) who helped introduce AB 411, said the bill didn't ban the teaching of history in Wisconsin, but restricted "indoctrination" and "state-sanctioned racism."

RELATED: Opponents Of Critical Race Theory Seek To Flip School Boards

It's unlikely Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, will sign the bill into law when it comes to his desk.

Because the legislation's language is so broad, it could discourage teachers and schools from offering courses about racism and sexism in Wisconsin schools, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault said in a statement.

Anti-racism and anti-sexism training are the heart of sexual violence prevention programming, the coalition said. If the bill is signed into law, it could create a "chilling effect" and cause schools to hold back from offering instruction.

"This legislation, if enacted, will cause schools to refrain from providing anti-racist and anti-sexist programming, which will be extremely detrimental to sexual violence prevention efforts," the coalition said.