'Divisive concepts' vs. 'whitewashing' history: Critical race theory debate comes to the Ohio Statehouse

How Ohio educators teach about racism, slavery and other "divisive concepts" was up for debate on Wednesday.

And the people who came to testify had very different ideas about what House bills 322 and 327 would do. 

Supporters told state lawmakers the bills would protect the "accurate" teaching of American history and keep teachers from pushing "dangerous" and "divisive" ideologies onto their students. Opponents claimed the proposed laws were meant to "whitewash" history, intimidate teachers and keep kids from participating in the political process. 

Opponents say bills would prevent classroom discussions, student projects

"There are still questions that remain about what the bills do," Rep. Brigid Kelly, a Democrat from Cincinnati's Hyde Park neighborhood, said. "There are clearly different perceptions, and I think there are a lot of nebulous terms that complicate things."

For example, HB 322 would prohibit teachers from "requiring or awarding course credit for lobbying or other work surrounding social or public policy advocacy."

Kelly said that might prevent future elementary school children from coming to the capitol to lobby for a state cookie or butterfly or frog. Opponents agreed with her assessment. 

Scott DiMauro, a high school social studies teacher from Worthington, said he routinely assigns a service learning project to his kids that requires them to "engage in a project they care about." He's had students volunteer for a range of organizations, including anti-abortion groups. But DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, would remove the project from his syllabus if either of these bills became law. 

The penalties for violating HB 327, he said, are simply too great. Students could be denied course credit, his school could lose their state funding and he could have his license suspended. 

"These kinds of extreme penalties based on murky prohibitions will create an oppressive and fear-based education environment that is not in the interest of students," DiMauro said. 

But supporters of the bills said that's not what the bill would do at all. 

'Teaching a complete history' on racism is goal, bills' supports say

Republican Reps. Diane Grendell and Sarah Fowler Arthur co-sponsored HB 327. Both repeatedly said that their bill was written to encourage conversations about diverse viewpoints and difficult subjects like slavery and the Holocaust. 

"Part of our goal is to condemn racism and to encourage teachers to handle it properly in the classroom by teaching a complete history," Fowler Arthur said. 

What concerns her and several other Republican representatives on the committee is something called critical race theory. 

Developed by legal scholars in the 1970s, CRT looks at how slavery and the racism that came with it still permeate American life. It isn't directly taught in K-12 classrooms, but supports of these bills say its teachings have seeped into everything from math to science. 

That's why they came up with a list of prohibited concepts that attempt to frame how schools can talk about "divisive concepts" like slavery. 

For example, HB 322 would prohibit any lesson claiming "the advent of slavery in the territory that is now the United States constituted the true founding of the United States." 

And HB 327 would limit what kind of training teachers could receive when it comes to things like unconscious bias. 

That was a real problem for Brandi Baker, a mother from Athens who said her daughter's school dismissed her concerns about a girl telling Baker's daughter that she wasn't allowed to be friends with Black people. 

"When I went to the school to address this issue, do you know what I was told," Baker said. "That's just how some people feel around here."

The response made her question whether her daughter was safe in school, and it made her realize that the teachers, the principal and potentially the entire district desperately needed additional training.

Ohio isn't alone in this debate over what is critical race theory and whether it's being used in public schools. Lawmakers in at least 28 states have introduced bills to define how schools teach American history. 

And former President Donald Trump wrote an opinion piece in June that said teaching CRT bordered on “psychological abuse.”

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.