Education Director, Dr. Ivory Toldson, Blast Indiana House Bill 1134

Director of Education Innovation and Research, Dr. Ivory Toldson, Released the Following Statement on Critical Race Theory-Inspired Indiana House Bill 1134:

"Today, teachers are teaching the most racially diverse student population in the history of our nation. The NAACP embraces this diversity and supports teachers who need the tools and support to reach across cultures and prepare students for global excellence. Unfortunately, Indiana House Bill 1134 treats reasonable efforts to create a more inclusive classroom for Black and Brown students as a national burden and perennial threat. This egregious and hyper-partisan bill is part of a nationwide effort to short-circuit open discussions about race and racism, or any controversial or deeply felt issue, by allowing anyone to claim they felt discriminated against by a lesson.

The bill tacitly endorses the type of monitoring and censorship of teachers typically found in anti-democratic totalitarian governments. The United States of America and the State of Indiana is better than this bill. We can learn from our past, celebrate our diversity and embrace a better future. We can trust teachers, parents, and school leaders and their consultants to work together to achieve diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and justice in education; and reject McCarthy-style politicians legislating education through xenophobic shades. We urge the state of Indiana to resist the socially engineered and deceptive trend of passing anti-Critical Race Theory legislation and develop good strategies to give educators the resources they sorely need to connect to a diverse student body."

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