Bill of the Week: Allowing Hate in the Classroom (with a twist)

This Bill of the Week is a swing and a miss. Good intentions, with seemingly little forethought- Arizona House Bill 2344: REPEALING SECTIONS 15-111 AND 15-112, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES; RELATING TO SCHOOL CURRICULA. 

This bill seeks to repeal:

15-111. Declaration of policy: The legislature finds and declares that public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people; and

Sources who contacted the sponsor relayed: the bill was introduced because a school district in Tucson was teaching about the genocide against Native Americans in Arizona. The superintendent of the state came in and said the program was trying to overthrow the state government, so he dismantled it and a bunch of teachers were fired. This bill would prevent that from happening again.

Unfortunately, it would do a lot more than that.

Keep the baby, [amend] the bathwater. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this. ~Claire