Will Texas legislators take harsher steps to ‘abolish’ critical race theory?

Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Tuesday aimed at banning teaching of the theory in public schools.

Texas lawmakers will revisit critical race theory during a special session, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement the day after he signed into law a bill aimed at barring the teaching of certain concepts related to race and racism in public schools.

The new law “is a strong move to abolish critical race theory in Texas, but more must be done,” Abbott wrote in Wednesday’s statement.

Abbott has not said when a special session will take place, what else will be on the agenda or what he wants from legislation to further address critical race theory. His move signals a desire for a stricter version of the new law.

The bill he signed Tuesday sought to ban the theory from schools but didn’t define or mention the concept explicitly. Some educators worry that there could be repercussions if they broach race or current events in class. They also worry that the law could hamper efforts to address racism and equity in schools.

Before Abbott signed the bill, some had posited that he would veto it and place the topic on a special session agenda to be reworked.

Pat Hardy, a Republican member of the State Board of Education and a former history teacher, urged him to do so, calling the version that passed “piece-of-junk” legislation.

“Get ready,” said Aicha Davis, a Dallas-area Democrat who also serves on the State Board of Education and opposed the bill. “Special session is fast and furious.”

She suspects that in sending the issue back to legislators, Abbott intended for them to strip out some language added by House Democrats. They tried to make the bill more palatable by adding provisions to require students to learn about diverse communities and leaders.

Those amendments require teaching about the Chicano movement, Native American history and the history of white supremacy and the ways it is morally wrong, among other things.

Critical race theory is a decades-old method of legal analysis that centers race and racism in the understanding of the country’s systems and policies. Discussion of it was long confined to academia.

Among the tenets of critical race theory are that racism is commonplace; that progress for underrepresented groups is encouraged only to the extent that changes benefit the status quo; and that concepts such as colorblindness and meritocracy are myths to be rejected.

Conservative pundits have recently conflated the theory with concepts such as diversity and inclusion efforts, anti-racism training, activism and multicultural curricula. The theory has become a popular topic on Fox News. Several other Republican-led states are debating similar bills, which echo arguments made by former President Donald Trump.

Leading up to the end of Texas’ regular legislative session, the future of the “anti-critical race theory” bill was often in flux.

When the Senate received the legislation, Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, swapped out the text, stripping out all of the House amendments. The Senate approved a more conservative version of the legislation.

Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, criticized the Senate swap, questioning why senators would remove certain House provisions.

“Is it fair to say that any bill that strikes language condemning racism is a racist bill?” Talarico asked before launching a procedural maneuver that threatened to kill the bill entirely.

As a result, the Senate hastily backtracked and voted to send the House’s version to the governor’s desk. Provisions from the Senate’s bill may be included in legislation introduced in a special session.

The bill came with a roughly $15 million annual price tag, starting in 2023, because it requires additional civics training for teachers. Districts would also shoulder extra costs because of a prohibition on accepting private money for certain training and course development.

Many educators are frustrated by what they see as legislators interfering with social studies lessons, especially as districts have been working to make history lessons more accurate and inclusive.

They passionately objected to the bill, arguing that it was going after a problem that doesn’t exist because critical race theory is not part of their curriculums.

Several groups, including Dallas ISD, have hinted that a legal challenge to the legislation may be coming.





Education Lab

Education Lab

Deepening coverage and conversations about issues affecting North Texas schools

By signing up you agree to our privacy policy