1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am a resident concerned about bill S.227, titled “Eliminating ‘DEI’ in public education.”         I fear that if this bill becomes law, it will exacerbate tensions and distrust between educators, students, parents, administrators, and elected officials on all levels of government. The bill’s vague and ambiguous language allows space for many classroom topics to be considered “divisive or discriminatory.” This, in turn, will lead to a culture of fear, where people acting in bad faith can report and make a case that any topic an educator covers goes against this policy. Teachers are the backbone of children’s lives, and this bill will only make their lives harder than they already are. I fear that this bill will force teachers out of North Carolina out of fear on top of the teacher shortage this state already has. The need for a bill like this is questionable at best. Many of the terms/subjects defined in the new GS 115C-76.205 are purely hypothetical and do not accurately depict the topics discussed in our classrooms. I question if topics like term 7, which states, “a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist,” 10, which states, “the rule of law does not exist but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups”; and 12 which states,  “governments should deny to any person within the government’s jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” Also, the terms “instruction and professional development” are discussed in our classrooms. For a bill like this to be necessary lawmakers should be able to prove that all of these terms and topics are prevalent in North Carolina schools and that it does significant harm to children. Proponents of this bill in the Senate have argued that the bill would encourage students to feel safe sharing their beliefs, but this bill will do the opposite, as it prevents discussions from occurring in the first place. Allowing space for difficult conversations is imperative to learning and creating an open-minded and empathetic youth, and we believe that educators should be encouraged to give students a wide breadth of information from different perspectives, sources, and authors from a variety of backgrounds to engage that all students engage with beliefs that may differ from their own. Additionally, while many topics and perspectives may be uncomfortable and upsetting to students and/or their parents, that in no way necessitates their complete removal from everyone’s curriculum. Our schools are under attack from many angles, from the dismantling of the Department of Education to the attack on free and reduced lunch, and we would love to see you tackle these true threats to our student’s quality of education instead of focusing on the unproven threats of DEI.