WI Bill To Bar Race And Sex Discrimination Talk In Schools Vetoed

WISCONSIN — Wisconsin schools will be able to discuss race and sex discrimination freely after a bill designed to restrict language in the classroom was vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers on Friday.

Teachers wouldn't have been able to talk about race or sex stereotyping or concepts like unconscious bias in state school districts and independent charter schools, according to the bill text. School boards and charter school operators also wouldn't have been able to require school staff to attend training around these subjects, had the bill become law.

The governor said he vetoed the bill because he saw the legislation as censorship that would have restricted schools from giving "honest, complete facts" about historical topics like the Civil War and civil rights.

"I trust parents, educators and schools to work together to do what is best for our kids — work they have been doing without the political interference and micromanagement from politicians in Madison," Evers, a Democrat, said in a statement.

See Also: 'Critical Race Theory' Bill Passed To WI Gov. Tony Evers

State Sen. André Jacque (R-De Pere), who co-sponsored the bill, accused the governor of ignoring "growing concern" of parents over materials taught in Wisconsin schools. Jacque said the bill would have stopped critical race theory from being taught in classrooms.

Despite the uproar over critical race theory, few educators require the scholarly framework to be taught in U.S. classrooms. Just over 4 percent of American schools mandated teaching it, as they understood it, according to an Association of American Educators poll.

Patch has found no lesson plans or programs in Wisconsin schools that could be accurately labeled critical race theory, as the bill defined it.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has culturally responsive practice instructions, but nothing in those plans include practices the bill wanted to counter.