Minnesota Democrats are seeking to bake racial and religious discrimination into state law with bills that would promote the racist ideology of critical race theory, deny many religious colleges the ability to offer college credit to high school students, and require teacher hiring decisions to consider applicants’ race.
HF 1269, authored by Democrat Reps. Kim Hicks and Laurie Pryor, would include a high school requirement to take “ethnic studies” — a thinly-veiled attempt to ensconce critical race theory and “intersectionality” into public school curricula. The bill describes students being taught that “race and racism have been and continue to be powerful social, cultural, and political forces” and exploring “the connection of race to the stratification of other groups, including stratification based on gender, class, sexuality, religion, and legal status.”
The legislation would also exclude colleges that require a faith statement from offering dual-credit courses to high school students, effectively giving secular, government-funded schools an unwarranted leg up in the education industry while discriminating based on religious beliefs — a textbook violation of the First Amendment.
Another bill, HF 3079, demands that skin color be a factor in hiring Minnesota teachers and removes certain testing requirements for would-be educators. “The percentage of teachers in Minnesota who are of color or who are American Indian should increase at least two percentage points per year … to ensure all students have equitable access to effective and diverse teachers by 2040,” it states.
In a recent committee hearing, Kofi Montzka, a black Minnesota attorney
